Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 18:16:11 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marty Subject: Point Lookout and area 12/12/2002 Comments: cc: southern maryland audubon MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Hello Everyone, An exciting day today with 3 county year birds. I = listened to the weather forecast today and got an early start. First = stop was Point Lookout State Park and the Causeway where I had all 3 = Scoters, Bufflehead, Red-breasted Merganser, Common Goldeneye, Lesser = and Greater Scaup, Ruddy Duck, Horned Grebe, Old Squaw, Common and = Red-throated Loon, Forsters Tern, Bonaparte's Gull, Herring Gull, = Ring-billed Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Brown Pelican, Northern = Gannet, Bald Eagle and last but not least the Harlequin Duck. Worked my = way to the point in hopes of a Snow Bunting but drew a blank on that = species. Was able to locate 1 American Pipit, 1 Merlin, 1 Sharp-shinned = Hawk, and a huge flock of 100+ Cedar Waxwings feeding on crabapples in = the picnic area. Nothing unusual in the way of sparrows or other small = landbirds so I proceeded to Camp Brown Rd where it started to get = interesting. I parked near a small patch of mixed tall grasses and low = bushes and proceeded to pish as loud as I could in hopes of finding an = unusual whatever and up popped *2 Tree Sparrows and *1 White-Crowned = Sparrow along with numerous Field, Savannah, and Song Sparrows. Numerous = Yellow-rumped Warblers, American Goldfinch, and House Finch also = appeared. Many Canada Geese and Tundra Swans were also in the field = directly behind the small patch of brush and grass. From there I then = crossed Rt 5 and proceeded to Longneck Rd where I had a lone Tundra Swan = in the 1st field on the left but nothing else. I continued on and = noticed the large # of Black and Turkey Vultures, Red-tailed Hawks and 4 = Northern Harriers working the fields near Trossbach's Farm and realized = it was hog harvesting time of the year. I proceeded to the end of the Rd = and just before turning around I saw a large flock of small birds = flitting around a very wet harvested Soybean field. I was able to count = 125 Horned-Larks, a fly-by American Pipit and mixed in with the Larks = were *3 Lapland Longspurs. All in all a great morning and well worth = starting as early as I did. I went home for lunch and warm-up and = returned to both Camp Brown Rd and Longneck Rd and could not re-locate = the Larks nor the Longspurs. The only other birds of note in the = afternoon were a lone Red-shouldered Hawk and a Coopers Hawk about a = mile north of Longneck Rd. *county year bird. Good Birding, Marty Cribb, = Point Lookout, St Mary's Co, Md =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D =========================================================================