Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2001 20:56:45 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: Great White Heron: Ft. McHenry 9/27 Comments: cc: Georgearmistead@aol.com, GreatGrayO@aol.com, lehmfinn@bellatlantic.net MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit MDOsprey, I made it out to Ft. McHenry to look for the heron at about 10:50 a.m. I walked slowly clockwise around the seawall checking the shorelines carefully. Finally, at 11:20 a.m. at the extreme Southwest corner of the peninsula I saw the Great White Heron standing in a small gut at the eastern end of the marsh. It remained here resting and preening until 1:15 p.m. when I left. During that time I was able to raise Mark Hoffman on his cell phone, and Keith Eric Costley wandered up and we enjoyed both the heron an impressive Broad-winged Hawk flight overhead (320+ from 12:00-1:15 p.m.). I took notes and a number of photos to document this first state record - kudos to Jim Peters for picking it out yesterday! Ft. McHenry is well shown on MD maps and is reachable off Rte. 95. Once in the monument, walk south across the fort grounds to the waters edge. To your right, and at the extreme southwest part of the monument property, is a small saltmarsh which is where the bird was seen. There were no other herons present and probably no alternative habitat for this bird nearby. I expect that if it remains, it will remain in this small patch of marsh. Eric said that the original sighting was from the same area, but that he thought Jim had seen the bird fly off towards the hospital to the west. The Masonville area opposite might be anohter potential feeding/resting area. The ID is straightforward, and the bird is hefty, with shaggy filoplues about the neck and back (a few). There is no plume behind the eye but the crown feathers were often raised by the wind giving a hoopoe-like appearance. The culmen is mostly dark. The legs are grayish-pink. Mark and I discussed the ageing of the bird and were uncertain, but thought the shaggy filoplumes might suggest an adult. In looking at Great Blues later today, I noted similar feathers on immatures. Neither adult nor juvenile Great Blues had plumes behind their eyes, though this is typical of adult Great Whites in December at least. I'd be grateful for any help ageing this individual, and hopefully should have a sufficient series of photos to determine its age. Best, Marshall Iliff miliff@aol.com Annapolis, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================