Date: Thu, 9 May 2002 22:32:30 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Steve Sanford Subject: Britannia-on-Susquehanna MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Gail Frantz and I took our visiting British birding buddy, Tony Eveleigh, out to Susquehanna State Park and vicinity, hoping especially for Bald Eagle, and Cerulean and Yellow-throated Warblers. The weather was drizzly and dreary, quite English in fact, as was the countryside, but we hit the main target birds and some bonuses. We took a pleasant route through Monkton and over Rt 136 rather than the more direct routes. On Rt 136 at McFadden Road, a Pileated Woodpecker flew across the road. Pretty soon we relocated it -- another coveted lifer for Tony, and he added Hairy Woodpecker there to boot. In Susquehanna SP at the Deer Creek (?) bridge we heard as many as 4 Cerulean Warblers. After a good half-hour of searching, Gail spotted one of them and gave us good directions so that we all ended up with great looks at it. Later on, we finally heard a Yellow-throated Warbler in the sycamores where the creek meets the Susquehanna. Eventually Tony, who has quite a knack for spotting, found it. We also got great looks also at a Swainson's Thrush, but it turns out Tony has seen an accidental Swainson's back home. The eagle nest on Stafford Road was empty, so we went on to Conowingo Dam's fisherman's park to look for them. Eagles, of course, get much less numerous there in spring and summer, and it was getting increasingly foggy and drizzly. After a half-hour we still hadn't seen any eagles, but we made one last stop at the south end of the park. Soon I spotted some suspicious lumps on a small rock island downstream and the scope clearly confirmed them to be immature Bald Eagles. Then an adult flew low upstream. While trying to locate that one, Tony saw another adult perched on a pylon of the power lines across the river, and then another. Well, I think he was pretty pleased, to say the least. We went across the dam and got a closer look at them from the Cecil County side. I suspect these were the parents and youngsters from the Stafford Road nest. Tony mentioned that a lot of his British birding friends miss Bald Eagle in the US because they are birding mainly in places like south Texas and Arizona. As for warblers, if I got it correctly Tony is up to 21 species seen with 3 more well-heard so far. He is especially "keen" to catch up with Blackburnian and Chestnut-sided Warbler. (In American, I think that means he really wants to see them.) 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================