Date: Sun, 8 Dec 2002 09:48:30 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Ralph Wall Subject: Waterfowl Count--Area 1 Comments: cc: edfas@starpower.net, kdismukes@earthlink.net, KEWychulis@aol.com, KurtCapt87@aol.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Area I covered No.VA ADC map areas 1, 2, and 3 and Algonkian Regional Park in Loudoun County, i.e., the stretch of the Potomac River from Algonkian down to the American Legion Bridge. Since we comprised a single team, we concentrated our efforts in the three major parks--Riverbend, Great Falls, and Algonkian. Most inland ponds and lakes in the area were frozen. Our team, Kathy Dismukes, Deblyn Flack, Katherine Wychulis and I, trudged through the deep snow along the Potomac banks, braved the early morning bitter cold, and remained enthusiastic during our seven hours out in the field. At Riverbend and Great Falls Parks, we were joined by an excellent British birder who was first to spot some of the rarer sightings. All species observed were in and/or over the Potomac River and are thus Maryland sightings, except for three of the four Kingfishers. It is highly unlikely that many, if any, of the birds we observed would have been visible from the Maryland side of the Potomac. Here is the list. The numbers preceding the species' names are quantity seen. The numbers after the species designate location--1-Riverbend, 2-Great Falls, 3-Algonkian. l Pied-billed Grebe 2 498 Canada Goose 1,2,3 2 Tundra Swan 1,3 29 Gadwall 1,2,3 5 American Wigeon 1,2 18 American Black Duck 1,2,3 61 Mallard 1,2,3 1 Black/Mallard Hybrid 3 REDHEAD 2 (all male) 323 Ring-necked Duck 1,2 25 Bufflehead 1,2 3 63 Hooded Merganser 3 21 Common Merganser 1,3 1 Bald Eagle 1 4 American Coot 1 4 Kingfisher 1, 2, 3 We also observed a few common gull species, Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks, Pileated Woodpeckers, and a good variety of songbirds. A second or a third team would have provided a much larger count since I understand there is now an official public path along the river from Riverbend Park north up to the Northern Virginia Regional Parkland accessed from Senaca Rd. in Great Falls. Ralph Wall Great Falls, VA ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================