Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2002 11:12:22 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Jim Stasz Subject: January 1 in Dorchester MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks! I spent most of New Year's day cruising Dorchester County. It was cold and windy the entire time. All of the ponds and most of the fresh water rivers were frozen. Duck hunters were in abundance [ducks were not]. I started just before dawn at Taylor's Island, then headed down to Hooper I. A quick tour of the Wildlife Loop at Blackwater NWR was disappointing. All areas near the drive were frozen solid, the wind was a steady 15-20 mph. from the NW and the Snow Goose flock was not only distant, but almostr every bird was sleeping. A blue morph adult Ross's Goose was reported on 12/28. From there I took the Bestpitch Ferry Rd. to Henry's Crossroads, then down to Elliott. The wind continiued and hunters were everywhere so I did no marsh tromping. I had an appointment elsewhere for sunset, so I headed toward home along Decoursey Bridge Rd. and back through Cambridge. The highlight was the WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH on Taylor's I. I believe this is only the third time for me in Dorchester. I have seen more Black Rails in Dorchester than WBNu. A Lincoln's Sparrow on Taylor's was my second January sighting in Dorchester. There is lots of good habitat throughout the county. The dark morph Rough-legged Hawk was along Elliott I. Road, but too shy to let me get any video. Although Elliott produced 2 Killderr and 2 Common Snipe [flushed by duck hunters], the 5 Lesser Yellowlegs were along a bit of open water at Drawbridge [just a bit west of Henry's Crossroads]. The list: Red-throated Loon Common Loon Horned Grebe Northern Gannet Great Blue Heron Tundra Swan Mute Swan Snow Goose Canada Goose American Black Duck Mallard Northern Pintail Greater Scaup Lesser Scaup Oldsquaw Common Goldeneye Bufflehead Ruddy Duck Turkey Vulture Bald Eagle Northern Harrier Sharp-shinned Hawk Red-tailed Hawk Rough-legged Hawk American Kestrel Wild Turkey Northern Bobwhite Killdeer Lesser Yellowlegs Sanderling Common Snipe Ring-billed Gull Herring Gull Great Black-backed Gull Mourning Dove Barn Owl Great Horned Owl Belted Kingfisher Red-bellied Woodpecker Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Downy Woodpecker Northern "Yellow-shafted" Flicker Pileated Woodpecker Blue Jay American Crow Carolina Chickadee WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH Brown-headed Nuthatch Brown Creeper Carolina Wren Winter Wren Golden-crowned Kinglet Ruby-crowned Kinglet Eastern Bluebird Hermit Thrush American Robin Northern Mockingbird Bohemian Waxwing European Starling Yellow-rumped "Myrtle" Warbler Pine Warbler Northern Cardinal Eastern Towhee Chipping Sparrow Field Sparrow Savannah Sparrow Fox Sparrow Song Sparrow Lincoln's Sparrow Swamp Sparrow White-throated Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird House Finch American Goldfinch House Sparrow Good Birding! Jim Jim Stasz North Beach MD jlstasz@aol.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================