Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 20:37:39 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Steve Sanford Subject: E Shore (no W Grebe), Robins MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I visited the Eastern Shore Monday and Tuesday Jan 28 and 29. The weather, of course, was delightful, but generally speaking, birds were scarce. On Tuesday for example, I didn't encounter a single Red-bellied Woodpecker! Some highlights, or low-lights: Jan 28: I checked Horsehead Wetlands and the Kent Narrows marina area for the Western Grebes and did not find any. At Blackwater there were perhaps 200 Pintails in the main impoundment on the right just beyond the entry station. This is the first time I've seen much water there for years. I enjoyed meeting Les Roslund in person at Mill Creek sanctuary in Talbot Co. Jan 29: West Ocean City Pond was great with 12 species of waterfowl and many hundreds of individuals, mainly Canvasbacks. The water-level is up considerably from early December. OC Inlet had about 20 Purple Sandpipers, 2 Common Loons, 1 R-t Loon, 10 Bonaparte's Gulls, 20 Forster's Terns, but no Harlequin Ducks, Gannets, or Eiders. The Skimmer Island area had about 50 Brant, 20 Oystercatchers, and 3 Oldsquaw. On Cherrix Rd in Worcester Co there were about 1500 Snow Geese -- the most I've ever seen by far in that county. I didn't find any unusual sparrows at EA Vaughn. There were 21 Wild Turkeys on Route 12 about 2 miles south of Girdletree. Yellow-rumped Warblers were very active at Horsehead and other E Shore locations. Robins were very active in Worcester, Wicomico, and Dorchester Counties. Robins were also very active here at home in Randallstown, Baltimore County today. At least 20 of them attacked and devoured almost all the crab apples on the tree in my yard this afternoon. For weeks a stalwart Mockingbird has been aggressively protecting the crab apples from gangs of Starlings, but apparently Robins are too big and tough for him. Or maybe he just appreciates the native species. This is the first winter I recall that there have been Robins present the entire season. A few are now singing in the mornings. Steve Sanford tanager@bcpl.net Randallstown MD Baltimore County ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================