Date: Sun, 26 Jan 2003 14:13:11 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Rick Sussman Subject: Black Hill Reg'l Park waterfowl MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi all, I made it up to BHRP around 10 AM this morning to sort through all the geese for the Richardson's. I did not find them, but I ran into Helen Horrocks and Marcia Balestri who said they had seen 4 earlier in the morning. They were on a Frederick County MOS trip, and having a good time. When I caught up with them at the Rt. 121 bridge, there were huge numbers of Canada Geese on the water, but they said the numbers were down from earlier. Before they left however a flock of Canada's flew in which contained a single Snow Goose (white), which remained after I left. Also present were good numbers of Canvasbacks, Mallards, A. Black Ducks, some Ring-necked Ducks, Buffleheads, Ruddy's, Hooded Mergs, and a pair of male Common Goldeneyes, and a single pair of American Wigeon. At least 48 Tundra Swans flew off while I was there, but there were still many present when I left. Lots of coots, and lots and lots of Canada Geese to sort through. Also a number of Pied-billed Grebes and at least one Horned Grebe were present. Also an adult Bald Eagle perched in a tree on the far shore eating something and preening. Red-tailed Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk and both vultures were also seen from the bridge area. Marcia tipped me off to a single scaup swimming in open water, seen from the visitor center, so I headed over to look. Sure enough, it was in with a raft of Ring-necked Ducks but swimming off by itself, with its bill tucked into its back. I shot a number of digi-pics of this bird. It had the smudgey gray-washed sides of a Lesser Scaup, but the other characteristics of a Greater Scaup. If anyone else sees this bird I would like to hear your opinion. My thought is that it is a Greater Scaup (male). When I left it was actively feeding by itself, and its head shape, bill, etc. were easily visible, and I got a few good shots of it. Rick Sussman Ashton,MD warblerick@aol.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================