Date: Sat, 9 Nov 2002 13:43:10 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Chris Starling Subject: Cecil County Land and Water 11/8/02 Greetings: I started the day at Work (where else). The water that borders the Perry Point VA Hospital held all the before mentioned ducks and swans with the addition of CANVASBACK (first for the year). There were many Canvasbacks (30-50) along the shore of the road leading to the Perryville town Park. Other birds of note at the park were Lesser Yellowlegs (12 birds) and Killdeer that were working the mud at low tide. I met a Ducks Unlimited Surveyor tat the park who told me he had counted nearly 200 Black Ducks in the creeks along the park. (Good Numbers for Black Duck). I then left Perry Point and headed to the Hawk Watch. On my way to Turkey Point I stopped at Carpenter's Point on the western Shore of the North East River to scan the marinas and campgrounds. Only birds of note were the 15 Black Vultures that were sun bathing in one of the marinas. I Got to the Turkey Point Hawk Watch at 9AM on Friday. It started very slow with only one Sharp-shinned Hawk in the first hour. then things started to heat up with mostly Red-tailed passing sometimes 4 or 5 at a time. One Red-shouldered passed as did Harrier, Cooper's and the best bird (IMO) all day a late OSPREY came by at 10:30. It took awhile before anybody realized what it was. No one was thinking Osprey! Later in the afternoon I decided to take Mr. Armistead's suggestion and get on in the boat and do some birding from the water. On the North East river at 2:30PM and found the usual gulls including Laughing Gull and Bonaparte's Gull. I then headed south to the Chesapeake Bay proper (Susquehanna Flats) and found huge numbers of ducks, geese, gulls, and terns. Only having 7X binos and looking pretty much right into the sun I was unable to ID most of the birds. I did manage to see more Bonaparte's, Canada Goose, about 20 Pied-billed Grebes, Tundra Swan, and 3 Common Loons. I was able to get the boat within 30 feet of the Loons before they dove! Bald Eagles were also numerous. I have got to get out there more often. Good birding, Chris Starling North East, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================