Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 12:32:24 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "Eugene J. Scarpulla" Subject: Hart-Miller Island: 12/01/01 Comments: To: Anne Brooks , Butch Norden , Dave Brinker , Donna Finnegan , Jeff Cowell , Jim Stasz , Steve Kopecky MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Observations at Hart-Miller Island December 1, 2001 0710-1650 AM: sunny, 60 degrees, winds 0 knots PM: sunny, 70 degrees, winds S 5 knots Route: clockwise oval (6 miles) Observers: Sue Ricciardi, Gene Scarpulla *RED-THROATED LOON *1 Common Loon 17 *GREAT CORMORANT *2 (first-year) Great Blue Heron 2 Canada Goose 161 (79 on island, 82 flyover) Mute Swan 2 Wood Duck 1 (male) Gadwall 6 (4 male, 2 female) American Black Duck 29 Black Duck/Mallard Hybrid 2 Mallard 155 (43 male, 38 female, 74 undetermined) Blue-winged Teal 1 (female) Northern Shoveler 1 (female) Greater Scaup 2 (1 male, 1 female) Lesser Scaup 31 Bufflehead 55 (20 male, 35 female) Northern Harrier 3 (2 immature, 1 undetermined) Cooper's Hawk 1 Red-tailed Hawk 2 (adult) American Kestrel 1 *BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER *1 Laughing Gull 17 Bonaparte's Gull 332 Ring-billed Gull 8 Herring Gull 16 Great Black-backed Gull 26 Forster's Tern 20 Mourning Dove 22 Belted Kingfisher 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker 4 (2 male, 2 undetermined) Downy Woodpecker 1 Northern Flicker 1 (Yellow-shafted) American Crow 6 Carolina Chickadee 2 Carolina Wren 7 House Wren 2 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1 American Robin 3 Gray Catbird 3 Northern Mockingbird 5 European Starling 330 *AMERICAN PIPIT *2 Common Yellowthroat 1 Eastern Towhee 3 Savannah Sparrow 32 *MYSTERY SPARROW *1 (Sue Ricciardi first noticed this sparrow. Its appearance was unfamiliar to me. Sparrow was observed off and on with Kowa and Swarovski spotting scopes at a distance of about 25 to 30 feet for about 10 minutes as it fed along the edge of the crossdike going in and out of the bases of the vegetation before disappearing into the vegetation over the edge of the dike. Plumage appeared very fresh with crisp pale strikingly-apparent feather edgings on upperparts [back, mantle, nape, scapulars, wing coverts] reminiscent of juvenile Baird's Sandpipers in fall; strikingly bold, wide, pale stripes on back and mantle extending unto nape [narrower on nape]; nape did not have any gray, green, or solid-color collar; extensive yellow color on face, crown, and nape; bright yellow supercillium, lores, ear coverts, sub-moustachial stripe; triangular yellow face patch with dark edging; head exhibited no evidence of crest; pale throat; some black streaking on breast [extent?] and flanks; pale belly; short notched tail. [Wish that I had a more detailed description.] [Opinions appreciated.] [Bonnie Ott, wish you were there.]) Song Sparrow 109 Swamp Sparrow 6 White-throated Sparrow 27 Dark-eyed Junco 2 (Slate-colored) *SNOW BUNTING *31 Northern Cardinal 4 (1 male, 3 female) Red-winged Blackbird 58 House Finch 3 American Goldfinch 111 MAMMALS Red Fox fresh tracks Raccoon fresh tracks BUTTERFLIES Cabbage White 2 Orange Sulphur 23 Variegated Fritillary 1 American Lady 4 Common Buckeye 2 Monarch 1 MOTHS Yellow-collared Scape Moth 2 Gene Scarpulla Millers Island, Maryland ejscarp@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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================