Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2002 20:29:59 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Toni & Bob Hartman Subject: ducks, etc. MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Hi - Toni and I went duck hunting today (with scope and binocs). However, the first "duck" we saw was a Bald Eagle on the ice at Tridelphia, seen from Brighton Dam. According to Sibley, this was a third year bird, with a fair amount of white on the head. We had never seen that plumage before. Also from the dam we saw about a dozen Buffleheads, and roughly 100 Common Mergansers, by far the biggest flock we have ever seen. Brighton Dam was the only place we could get to Tridelphia from the Montgomery side - the other access roads were closed. We have gotten in there during previous winters - what's going on? At Black Hill, in addition to a lot of geese and Ruddy Ducks, we saw about a dozen Ring-necks, roughly 2 dozen Canvasbacks (almost all drakes), about 6 Hooded Mergansers, a single pair of pintails, a single male C. Goldeneye, 2 or 3 P-b Grebes, 2 Common Loons, and only about a dozen coots. That's the smallest number of coots we have ever seen there in winter; in recent years, the numbers have been in the hundreds. Did we just miss them? Bob Hartman Colesville, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================