Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 17:39:31 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Michael Bowen Subject: Red-throated Loon in DC Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed I went to Hains Point, District of Columbia, at about 2 p.m. today, to see if I could find the Short-eared Owl and/or Peregrine Falcon spotted this morning by Rob Hilton and Paul Pisano. (I couldn't.) However, the first bird I saw at Hains Point, on the National Airport side, was a winter-plumaged Red-throated Loon, a species I've not seen before in the District. The bird came as close as 30 feet, and dove repeatedly. The front of the neck down to the chest was very white, as was the lower face; the crown and hind neck were medium light gray, quite a contrast against the white, and the smallish, slightly upturned bill was medium gray in color. The back was mottled, light on medium gray. The last time I saw this bird was about 2:15 p.m. today (Saturday, November 16), when it was a diving near a red buoy with #4 painted on it. I later went over to Gravelly Point (the area north of the airport where plane aficionados like to stand and watch takeoffs) and met Rob, but there was no sign of the Red-throated. A Common Loon was just off the runway light structure (Rob had seen two of this species earlier in the morning.) Only other things to report are 12 HOODED MERGANSER and 12 PIED-BILLED GREBE at Roaches Run. By 3 p.m. the light was poor, it was still raining, and a very stiff NE wind was blowing. Mike Bowen Bethesda, MD D.H. Michael Bowen (Mike) 8609 Ewing Drive Bethesda MD 20817 Tel./Fax: (301) 530-5764 ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= e-mail: dhmbowen@yahoo.com =========================================================================