Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 16:12:58 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Chris Starling Subject: Perry Point 01/30/03 Greetings: I am back from birding the Northern Caribbean Island of Provodinciales and am now back in the thick of reality. -that is birding the cold barren tundra of Maryland. Seriously I love snow and love the winter we have been having. I had my first chance (in a while) to bird the VA Facility in Cecil County (where I work). While I only spent about 45 minutes birding and only got out of the truck twice, I still managed to tally up 38 species with out really trying. I may go back out later but for now today's highlights includ waterfowl and at least 30 Great-blue Heron that were "fishing" on the ice. Mill Creek, the areas usual waterfowl holding place continues to be frozen solid as is most of the Susquehanna Flats. This has resulted in the waterfowl moving around to the shore line of the VA Facility itself. The mouth of the Susquehanna River has opened up from its frozen slumber and continues to play host to thousands of Gulls and Common Mergansers. Other waterfowl species include Mallard, American Black Duck, Canvasback, Gadwall, Ring-necked Duck, Ruddy Duck, Bufflehead, Redhead, Lesser Scaup, American Coot, Hooded Mergs and about 3000 Canada Geese. All of these species are in good numbers and are hanging right at the shore line near the "Old Mill" on the VA grounds. Bald Eagles are also plentiful out on the ice. Other birds of note today include White-breasted Nuthatch, Eastern Towhee, and a lone Killdeer that was foraging over the under ground steam pipes (the only areas that are not covered in 1-2 inches of snow. Some of the facilities feeders were hopping with the normal feeder birds. Notable was the number of House Finches that have seemed to come out of the wood work. One feeder alone hosted at least 50 house finches.... Good Birding, Chris Starling Hances Point (NE), MD christopher.starling@med.va.gov ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================