Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2001 18:28:01 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Steve Sanford Subject: Snow Buntings, Bairds Sandpiper af Ft McHenry MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The Snow Buntings (now 3) and the Baird's Sandpiper were still at Fort McHenry at midday today (11/01) along the seawall. The Snow Buntings were either on the wall itself or in the rocks below. The sandpiper was close by on the rocks, a little further east. From the main parking area go straight to water, left of the fort, and follow the wall about 1/4 mile. The birds today were somewhat beyond a point directly across from the Lehigh Cement towers, close to where there are many massed cannons near the first tree in that vicinity. There were also 3 Fox Sparrows in the wetlands area. I managed to get a decent close-up, very close, of one of the Snow Buntings which you can view at: http://www.geocities.com/bfbooby/SnowBunting.html I used the "digi-scoping" technique of merely putting my digital camera up to the scope lens. Unfortunately, I ran out of juice before trying to photograph the Baird's Sandpiper. Both species tolerated very close approaches, especially if you kept the sun behind you. The Snow Buntings appeared to be two males and one female, if we dare speculate about sex, based on the amount of white in the wings. Note, there is now a DETOUR to get into the fort, which is well-marked but complicated, through the port authority. If you are coming up I-95 from the south, get off at exit 55 as usual but do NOT turn left onto Key Highway. Follow the detour signs. This will go on 6-8 months according to Jim Peters. Steve Sanford tanager@bcpl.net Randallstown MD Baltimore County http://www.geocities.com/bfbooby/index.html ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================