Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2002 08:12:27 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Jim Stasz Subject: Kent County 1/5: White-fronted Goose, Western Kingbird MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks! I spent Saturday touring Kent County just to see what was there this winter. Overall the number and variety of passiners was low. I saw no juncoes, missed Golden-crowned Kinglet, and even Myrtle Warblers and White-throated Sparrows were in low double-digits. There is a huge flock of Bay Ducks in the Chester River off of Eastern Neck NWR at Bogle's Wharf. I estimated 20,000 ducks, with Greater Scaup easily the most abundant. There were also Lesser Scaup, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehad, Canvasback, Hooded Merganser, and a pair of Redheads. A single Snow Bunting was heard with Horned Larks along Duck Puddle Road. For County Listers, Duck Puddle is probably the best place in Kent to look for this species. Highlights: A Great Cormorant in the Bay off of Rock Hall was new for my County List. On the lawn at the Worton Elementary School was a flock of 2000 Canada Geese with a single adult "Greenland" Greater White-fronted Goose. Although not really close, I took a few minutes of video of this new bird for my County List. I have looked for GWFG for years among the Canada flocks in Kent without success and finally have it out of the way. The goose numbers look better than last year so it is is more of a haystack. A pair of Barred Owls were calling along Walnut Tree Road in Millington WMA at dawn. Barred Owls are thinner in Kent than most Maryland counties. White-breasted Nuthatch makes my "highlight" list for the second time. This is a very scarce breeder in Kent County, not rare like in Dorchester. Finally, and part of the whole reason for the trip, was the Western Kingbird. As I was scanning ducks at the north end of Eastern Neck NWR, Kathy Lambert & Larry Zoller drove past, turned around, and told me they had just seen the Kingbird. I headed down to the entrance to Ingleside and waited. Patience is a big part of birding and sometimes it pays off. After about an hour the Western Kingbird flew in and provided wonderful views while it hawked insects from the telephone wires, tress, and even the Inglewood sign. It stayed for about 15 minutes before heading off . For sunset I watched the Grassland Plantation at Chino Farm in Queen Anne's County. Eight harriers put on quite a show, but, alas, no Short-eared Owls......maybe next time. The List: Red-throated Loon Great Cormorant Great Blue Heron Tundra Swan Greater White-fronted Goose Snow Goose Canada Goose American Black Duck Mallard Northern Pintail Canvasback Redhead Greater Scaup Lesser Scaup Oldsquaw Common Goldeneye Bufflehead Hooded Merganser Common Merganser Red-breasted Merganser Ruddy Duck Black Vulture Turkey Vulture Bald Eagle Northern Harrier Sharp-shinned Hawk Cooper's Hawk Red-tailed Hawk American Kestrel Killdeer Common Snipe Ring-billed Gull Herring Gull Great Black-backed Gull Rock Dove Mourning Dove Eastern Screech-Owl Great Horned Owl Barred Owl Belted Kingfisher Red-bellied Woodpecker Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Downy Woodpecker Yellow-shafted Flicker WESTERN KINGBIRD Horned Lark Blue Jay American Crow Carolina Chickadee Tufted Titmouse Red-breasted Nuthatch White-breasted Nuthatch Carolina Wren Ruby-crowned Kinglet Eastern Bluebird Hermit Thrush American Robin Northern Mockingbird Brown Thrasher European Starling Myrtle Warbler Northern Cardinal Eastern Towhee Savannah Sparrow Song Sparrow Swamp Sparrow White-throated Sparrow White-crowned Sparrow Snow Bunting Red-winged Blackbird Eastern Meadowlark Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird House Finch American Goldfinch House Sparrow Butterflies: Orange Sulphur 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================