Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 10:43:16 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Fred Fallon Subject: Bowie CBC MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Highlights of the Bowie CBC Jan 1, 2002 Weather clear and cold, low of 18 degrees and high of 36. There are few expanses of water within the circle, and most of that was frozen, tho' the ponds Cash Lake and Lake Artemesia had some portions open. The consequent scarcity of waterfowl, and the total absence of winter finches kept the species count down to 84; missing too were most of the scarcer species of which this count sometimes does get one or another. A record number of observers in the field - 72 - did contribute to high counts of several species. This is the 30th year of the Bowie CBC. Some selected species (with observer names in some cases, since these may be included in the MD Cumulative List) - Pied-billed Grebe - 20 (Luther Goldman, Lake Artemesia, Greenbelt) Snow Goose (pr injured; Fred Fallon, S. Bowie) Bald Eagle - 9 Ring-necked Duck - 37 (Luther Goldman) Hooded Merganser - 2 (Chris Perry, S. Bowie) Ruddy Duck - 42 (L. Goldman) Bald Eagle - 9 Merlin (Hal Wierenga, Davidsonville area) Wild Turkey (Danny Bystrak, PWRC S Tract; Hal Wierenga, Davidsonville) Common Snipe (Keith Pardieck, central Bowie, among others) Am. Woodcock - 3 Screech Owl - 7 Gr H. Owl - 11 Barred Owl - 10 Saw-whet Owl - 1 (Fred Shaffer, Bowie); also, the next day, after the Christmas Tree in the Patuxent Visitors Center was removed, a SWOW was discovered in the rafters above where the tree had been. The owl presumably had been brought in in the tree and spent the entire 3 weeks, indoors, in it; perhaps feeding on mice to be found inside the building. Owls generally were plentiful and found in some new locations, while other, traditional, sites were devoid of them altogether. Phoebe - 5 C. Chickadee - ~850 (~ average) Titmouse - ~800, record high Red-br Nuthatch - 8 White-br N'hatch - 174 Winter Wren - 74, 4th highest Robin - ~2200, record high Catbird - 6 Brown Thrasher - 8 Tree Sparrow - 12 Fox Sparrow - 122! Record high, and 50 more than the previous high of last year. A single brush pile in S. Bowie held 6 (F Fallon) White-thoated Sparrow - 2700 (sl above average) White-crowned Sparrow - 3 (at BARC) Rusty B'bird - 13 (Jay Sheppard, Laurel among others) Meadowlark - 22, a recent high and suggests some recovery (at BARC) Missing: Bob-white (for 4th straight year); Horned Lark; Am Pipit; all winter finches Fred Fallon Bowie CBC compiler fwfallon@earthlink.net Bowie MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================