Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2002 19:00:33 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Stuart White Subject: Barnacle Goose & Horned Larks Comments: To: va-bird@freelists.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit About 3 p.m. this afternoon (Monday) I and a birder visiting from Connecticut enjoyed watching the Barnacle Goose, with its customary flock of Canadian Geese, munching grass from the baseball field on the south side of Eisenhower Avenue near Cameron Run Regional Park in Alexandria, VA. This was my second viewing of this bird; what a beauty it is! My friend last saw Barnacle Geese in Greenland c. 1961. I then drove to southern Frederick County, MD, seeking those Lapland Longspurs that Hans Holbrook saw earlier today near the intersection of Buckeystown Road & MD Rte. 28. On Buckeystown Road just north of Lilypons Road a flock of 40 or so small light-colored birds swirled across road over my car and were gone before I could stop to identify them -- there were other cars right behind me. By the time I could make a U-turn and return, l I found a pair of Horned Larks foraging in the cornfield on the west side of Buckeystown Road but no Longspurs. Since these species often forage together at this time of year, I suppose the flock were mostly Longspurs, but I'll have to visit another day to know for sure. Thanks, Hans, all the same. Good birding, all. Stuart White McLean, VA kirtland1999@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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================