Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2002 19:02:06 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Stan Arnold Subject: SW Balt. Co., in the snow Comments: cc: "Charles A. Kucera" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks, I was getting cabin fever by early afternoon, so went out, despite the still falling snow, and met Charlie Kucera for a little birding at UMBC and the Halethorpe ponds. Nothing new on campus, but a pair of RED-TAILED HAWKs roosting in the woods was unusual (Red-shoulders are the predominant raptor here). A resident YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER and a repeat sighting of an AMERICAN TREE SPARROW were both enjoyable. The biggest of the Halethorpe ponds was about half frozen, leaving plenty of open water for the following collection of ducks: AM. BLACK DUCK--1 MALLARD--15 CANVASBACK--9 SCAUP (I believe a female GREATER; it was hunkered down the whole time, and I never saw the face, but the profile looked greater-ish) HOODED MERGANSER--5 RUDDY DUCK--8 mystery ducks--4 of them on the far shore, hunkered down the entire time; medium size; white wing patches, appearing as white stripes along the flanks; dark head against a grayish breast; my best guess is COMMON GOLDENEYE; will try to get another reading tomorrow, though the scenery changes every day. Stan Arnold Glen Burnie blackrail@earthlink.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================