Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 19:31:12 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Sherry Peruzzi Subject: Couldn't find the GWHE MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit After reading Matt Hafner's post about the Great White Heron being at Masonville Cove this afternoon, my husband Ken and I jumped in the car and tried to find it. Unfortunately, we couldn't even find the pond, let alone the bird! Matt wrote: > Take 895 and get off at Childs st. (the exit > between the toll and tunnel) > Loop back under 895. > Park in the first pullout on the right. > Walk past the fence down a concrete road. > The pond is on the left. We took 895 and got off at Childs St. (after paying $1 toll for the bridge we didn't cross), turned left (north) on Childs St. and went under the highway, and then pulled off on the right at a faded blacktop road leading east immediately after the underpass. The road had a "Road Closed" sign on it, with a couple of orange barrels blocking the way. We walked all the way up the road -- apparently an old exit ramp from 895 -- until it ended, but never did see a pond, or any kind of area a heron would frequent. We also drove up and down the length of Childs St. a couple of times, but couldn't find any other roads on the east side, just fenced parking lots for the auto terminal. Then we went up to Ft. McHenry, hoping to see the heron there. We spent some time watching the marsh, but saw only a Great Blue Heron, not the white one we were looking for. We found the note Marshall Iliff had left, and his directions seemed to be to exactly where we had been so unsuccessfully. We ran into Andrew Gilbert there, and the three of us decided to go back across the river to try to find the pond at Masonville Cove again. This time there was a train stopped across the road we had walked down earlier, but after some consultation we decided it would be safe to walk down to the front of the train, cross the tracks, and come back to the road. Once again we walked to the end of the road, and even climbed over the steel barrier at the end of it, but never did see a pond, or any water at all. Frustrated, the three of us drove down a road on the other side of Childs St. (going west, even though Marshall's note had specified east). It ended after about a half mile at an old dirt road leading into a marshy area, so we parked our cars and started walking. From one vantage point we could see the marsh at Ft. McHenry, so the spot where we were was directly across from it. We walked here and there , following all the paths that were passable, finding a pond (although apparently not the one Marshall meant) and various places to look out over the water that separated us from Ft. McHenry. We saw a Great Blue flying back and forth, and it seemed to be coming from the area Marshall was referring to, but we never could find the spot -- or the Great White Heron. If someone can post more detailed directions to the Masonville Cove sighting, we'll go back in a day or so and try again. Thanks, Sherry Peruzzi Columbia, Howard County bookworms@home.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================