Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 23:51:09 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: David Mozurkewich Subject: Snipe and Waterfowl In-Reply-To: <009401c1cfbf$29e59720$76d93ad0@g76j801> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII With all the recent reports of small numbers of Snipe, there may be interest in knowing that a hot spot for these birds in the DC area seems to be the mouth of Broad Creek, PG county. I have been seeing one to two dozen birds there since November. Now, the wintering population has been augmented by migrants. Last Sunday, March 17, I was fortunate enough to be there on rising tide as 92 Snipe were feeding along the edge of the rapidly disappearing mudflat. Other nice, but not unexpected birds at Broad Creek that morning were a singing Marsh Wren, a nearly adult Lesser Black-backed Gull and about 60 Tree Swallows flying over the Potomac. To answer Fred Fallon's question about waterfowl movements from about a week ago, there has been a big movement of some duck species out of the area. The common puddle duck here this winter was Gadwall with a peak count on January 13 of about 200 at Broad Creek and another 500 at Piscataway Park. Sunday, I could only find 25. Tundra Swans were down to 2 from a high of 650. Diving ducks are still here. 900 Scaup and 450 Ruddy Ducks are good counts. Ring-necked Ducks are down to about 15 and Canvasbacks to about 150 from their winter highs of about 400 each. Common Mergansers are down to about 60 from a high of 125. Sunday's 5 Red-breasted Mergansers was an all-time high for me on the Potomac. Dave David Mozurkewich Seabrook, PG MD USA mozurk @ bellAtlantic.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================