Date:         Thu, 29 Aug 2002 11:47:43 -0400
Reply-To:     Maryland Birds & Birding <MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
Sender:       Maryland Birds & Birding <MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM>
From:         Walter Ellison <rossgull@CROSSLINK.NET>
Subject:      More birds at Great Oak Landing
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Hi Everybody,

I was afraid that last nights 3 plus inches of rain might have flooded
the pond near the intersection of Great Oak Landing and Handy Point
Roads but it was very lively today under pewter skies.

Because I have had off list inquiries I will give some general
directions regarding finding the place and how to bird it. The pond is
on private land although it is not obviously posted, and I view it by
spotting 'scope without active exploration of the shore and fields
from a point near the north shore adjacent to a corn field.  I stay
stationary because I imagine I look less like a threatening hunter or
presumptuous trespasser that way. To date I have yet to be accosted,
but I still expect it sometime.  The pond can be reached by taking
Handy Point Rd west from the intersection of MD 514 and MD 298. The
road to the Great Oak Landing Resort is well signed and the pond is
just on the left after you turn off Handy Pt Rd.

This morning's list:

  23 Green-winged Teal
    1 Am Black Duck
  62 Mallard
    6 N. Shoveler
    1 Blue-winged Teal
    2 Bald Eagles (harassing waterfowl, etc, a juvenile and a fourth
year)
    1 juvenile Cooper's Hawk (probably female, harassing blackbirds)
  47 Lesser Yellowlegs
    1 Solitary Sandpiper (flying over)
    1 Spotted Sandiper (ad)
  30 Semipalmated Sandpipers
    3 Western Sandpipers
    5 Least Sandpipers
    8 White-rumped Sandpipers
    1 Pectoral Sandpiper
  25 Stilt Sandpipers
  43 Short-billed Dowitchers
    1 juvenile Long-billed Dowitcher
    1 juvenile Black Tern (like an outsized swallow)
280 Purple Martins
150 Tree Swallows
  5+ Bank Swallows
  1 female Yellow-headed Blackbird in a flock of 500+ red-wings,
cowbirds, grackles and starlings.

You'd think the rain made the birds sprout out of the clay.

Good Birding,

Walter Ellison
MD/DC Atlas Coordinator - MOS
23460 Clarissa Rd
Chestertown, MD 21620-3645
410-778-9568
rossgull@crosslink.net

"A person who is looking for something doesn't travel very fast." - E.
B. White

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