Date: Sun, 27 Jan 2002 16:52:55 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Paul Woodward Subject: Towpath-Washington Co-01-26-02 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Since very few reports are posted here for Washington County I'm going to give my complete results from yesterday's 4th annual winter C&O Towpath count. I cover the area from milepost 76 (Synder's Landing) to milepost 81(Taylor's Landing). (DeLorme 71 D4&5). I did this stretch in 1999 and 2000, but couldn't make it last year because of the snow. This was the first year that weather wasn't a problem. It was more like a early spring count than a winter one. Doves, chickadees, titmice, cardinals and Song Sparrows were singing. Bluebirds were also singing and investigating nest cavities. Ended up with 36 species and 705 individuals compared to 37 & 434 in 1999 and 42 & 620 in 2000. Species added to the composite list were Northern Pintail, Northern Mockingbird,and Purple Finch. The common species were at normal population levels. My biggest surprise was no hawks and almost no vultures. As I was approaching the end at milepost 81 two Turkey Vultures appeared out of the blue and soared overhead. Complete List: Great Blue Heron-3 Turkey Vulture-2 Canada Goose-151 Am. Black Duck-142 Mallard-2 Mallard x Black Duck Hybrid-2 (Black ducks with green heads) Northern Pintail-1 Hooded Merganser-3 Common Merganser-15 Mourning Dove-2 Belted Kingfisher-3 Red-bellied Woodpecker-18 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker-2 Downy Woodpecker-16 Hairy Woodpecker-1 Pileated Woodpecker-3 Blue Jay-11 Am. Crow-48 Carolina Chickadee-40 Tufted Titmouse-16 White-breasted Nuthatch-16 Brown Creeper-4 Carolina Wren-22 Winter Wren-5 E. Bluebird-12 Am Robin-58 Northern Mockingbird-3 Cedar Waxwing-2 Starling-2 Myrtle Warbler-1 Song Sparrow-5 White-throated Sparrow-18 Slate-colored Junco-42 Cardinal-8 House Finch-2 Purple Finch-1 Am Goldfinch-23 Paul Woodward Fairfax City, VA 22032 grackling@worldnet.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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================