Date: Fri, 6 Dec 2002 21:39:00 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Chris Starling Subject: Perry Point 12/6 Greetings: I birded the Va complex today at Perry Point-Cecil County. note: the Perryville Town Park is closed to cars and trucks untill the snow melts and the roads are passable (they dont plow). However, you can walk into the park by parking on the VA grounds at either building #25 or #22. Mill Creek (the main body of water for waterfowl at the park) is 75% frozen. this changes with the tide however. At all tides you will find copious amounts of swans, geese, and ducks in whatever open water ther is. Today I had my first Hooded and Common Mergs of the winter! I have been wondering when they'd show. i guess it took a snow to get them to move in? There were quite a few Hoodies around (25+). Other notables were at least 400 Canvasbacks and two large groups of Tundra Swan. The closer group had about 500 swans. The second group was farther out on the Susquehanna Flats and had at least 300 birds. There were also loon-like birds way out that I was unable to ID. My boat is now surrounded by ice so it may be some time before I get to get out and see what's there. Later in the day I had a chance to don the cross-crountry skis and check out the woods behind the firehouse. In the woods I found the usual species including White-throated Sparrow and Eastern Towhee. A Bald Eagle flew over and a Sharp-shinned was seen hunting through a stand of spruce. It sure is pretty out there. Below is a list of all the waterfowl species noted today: Pie-billed Grebe Canada Goose Tundra Swan Mute Swan Mallard American Black Duck American Widgeon Canvasback Ring-necked Duck Scaup sp. Bufflehead Ruddy Duck Hooded Merganser Common Merganser Loon sp. (too far off to ID) Other 'water birds": Ring-billed Gull Herring Gull Bonaparte's Gull Laughing Gull Killdeer Belted Kingfisher Good Birding, Chris ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================