Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2002 21:19:04 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Stan Arnold Subject: : NRL Hawks, Short-eared Owls, etc. MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks, On my way home from the Ocean City CBC, I made some stops in Wicomico and Dorchester counties. I visited several locations around Salisbury, looking for ducks, but the pickings were slim. Only Schumaker Pond in SE Salisbury had an offering: about 20 RING-NECKED DUCKs and a male REDHEAD. The trees in the area were dripping with Golden-crowned Kinglets, and a lone Brown Creeper was seen also. The borrow pit at the west end of the US 50 bypass, and the Nanticoke River under the US 50 bridge were both duckless. Elliott's Island Rd. in Dorchester Co. held some shorebirds at the first impoundment on the right after breaking out of the woods: 17 GREATER YELLOWLEGS and 34 DUNLIN. In the expanse of marsh between the two "abandoned" houses on the left was a N. ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK, first seen perched on a pole at quite a distance, and later viewed having a scuffle with a much smaller harrier, and then flying about, doing some periodic hovering, a real joy to watch. The bird was a light-phased male. From there I went to Shorter's Wharf Road, along the eastern expanse of the Blackwater NWR. Here I set up the scope, and at 3:40 p.m. saw my first SHORT-EARED OWL, well before sunset. By the time I left at 4:30 p.m., I had seen at least six different Short-ears, all in good light, and some at close range offering excellent views for study. Also seen here was another light-phased NRL Hawk, usually perched, but also briefly dog-fighting with a harrier, and at one point being strafed by a Short-ear. A most enjoyable show. This all bodes well for the Blackwater CBC tomorrow. The Ocean City CBC, by the way was about average in results, but still very satisfying. I don't recall any real chasers surfacing, but some of the more interesting finds included Brown Pelican (for the second year in a row), Snowy Egret, Little Blue Heron, Blue-winged Teal, Eurasian Wigeon, and Baltimore Oriole (at least two). Besides the ubiquitous Yellow-rumps, other warblers found were Orange-crowned, Palm, and Common Yellowthroat. Only one Harlequin Duck was found, a drake spending its time behind the stone jetty at the inlet, and well-viewed only by the Assateague Island party. Stan Arnold Glen Burnie dy.dx@verizon.net (new) ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================