Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2002 10:13:23 -0800 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Mark James Subject: Re: Westerrn Grebe pair Content-Type: text/plain Content-Disposition: inline Mime-Version: 1.0 Hello Norm A small question(s). Is the Western Grebe officially a new state bird for Maryland? I guess that would be the first one of 2002? How long ago was the last 'new bird'? Mark On Sun, 13 January 2002, Norman Saunders wrote: > > Fran and I stopped at Horsehead this morning at 9 am and were unable to > locate the Western Grebes at the location noted yesterday by Pete Webb. > This wasn't surprising since the wind was howling and the locale they were > in yesterday was being whipped into whitecaps. > > However, after a bit of searching, we DID locate the pair in sheltered water > in a cove on the east side of Kent Island, just a bit south of the Kent > Narrows Bridge at about 10 am. > > Here are directions--follow Pete Webb's directions out the marsh trail. > Just before you reach the canoe put-in there is an observation tower on the > right and a trail heading west on the left. Take this trail and follow it > around the north end of a large pond. Behind the pond there is an abandoned > house with yet another trail leading west to yet another observation tower. > The viewing from this tower was abysmal--the wind was howling across the > bay, shaking scopes, making eyes tear, and tearing hats off of heads. > Nonetheless, after about ten minutes of scanning the relatively calm waters > in the lee of Kent Island, Fran picked out the pair and got the scope on > them. We watched them through the scope for about another 10 minutes and > confirmed the patterning on neck and head, though the birds' bodies were > difficult to see in the waves and heat shimmer on the water. > > After this we left because our eyes were about to fall out of their sockets. > We then went looking for Hans Holbrook and his dad to tell them where we had > seen the grebes but were unable to locate them--I'm glad they were able to > find them later themselves! > > Leaving Horsehead we moved along to Eastern Neck, hoping for the "western" > hat trick, but alas it wasn't to be. We birded there for for about an hour > or so in the company of Bill Schreitz but saw no sign at all of the Western > Kingbird. Not surprising, really, in light of the horrible winds blowing > out of the west. > > Nonetheless, we were pleased with our day--a new state bird (especially a > pairof them!) is never to be looked down upon! > > Best, > Norm > > ================================= > Norman C. Saunders > Colesville, Montgomery County, Maryland > marshhawk@att.net > > ======================================================================= > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > ======================================================================= Find the best deals on the web at AltaVista Shopping! http://www.shopping.altavista.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================