Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2001 19:55:12 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: Hopper's I. & Blackwater Oct. 28 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sunday, October 28, 2001. Rigby's Folly, Ferry Neck, near Bellevue, Talbot County. 5 American Woodcock flushed from our driveway going out just before 6 A.M. One of these pudgy, bug-eyed, zany "Labrador Twisters" was so reluctant to fly I had to drive around it! Ties our previous yard high of 5, a family group of 2 adults and 3 downy young seen by Liz A. and myself on May 26, 1975. Lots of sparrows, juncos, and other birds flushed from the roads at dawn from here all the way down to Blackwater, indicating a big fallout from last night. Blackwater N.W.R., 7:30 - 10:45 A.M., refuge bird walk of Levin Willey, Angie Cannon, and myself. Highlights: 2 Ross's Geese and 1 Canada Goose (hutchinsii). Other goodies: 1 Black-crowned Night Heron, 6 Great Egrets, 11 double-crested Cormorants, 1 Forster's Tern (only), 4 Blue and 45 Snow Geese, 1 Blue-winged and 475 Green-winged Teal, 30 Northern Pintails, 25 Northern Shovelers, 1 Red-shouldered Hawk, 550 Dunlin, and Levin saw 7 species of sparrows. Water levels in tidal areas and in some of the impoundments were extremely low. 2 Fox Squirrels. Hooper's Island, 11 A.M. - 3 P.M. Fair becoming clear. 50-55 degrees. Wind NW 20-25 m.p.h. 344 raptors seen by myself and Levin Willey: 101 Turkey & 3 Black Vultures, 87 Sharp-shinned, 5 Cooper's, 110 Red-tailed and 12 Red-shouldered Hawks, 1 Northern Harrier, 1 Osprey, 13 Bald Eagles, 5 American Kestrels, and 6 unidentified raptors. A good flight (not bad for 4 hours in the middle of the day!!) but probably would have been even better with less wind. Virtually all birds were flying north into the wind as is usually the case here. Levin also saw a Common Yellowthroat and 2 Yellow Palm warblers at Hooper's. Butterflies: 1 unidentified anglewing and 1 medium-sized dark butterfly (Red Admiral?) were all I saw. A glorious fall day, but cold and windy. Best to all.-Harry Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA 19119. Any off-list replies, please, to: harryarmistead@hotmail.com. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================