Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 21:25:54 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Sherry Peruzzi Subject: Pintail pair at Wilde Lake (Ho Co) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Between the bad weather and my recent surgery, I haven't been able to go birding, or even be at the computer very much. Ken Board and I went out for a short walk at Wilde Lake in Columbia this afternoon and found a pair of Northern Pintails among the Ring-necks, Canvasbacks, Mallards, Canada Geese and Ring-billed Gulls at The Cove on the south side of the lake. (Bubblers keep the water there ice-free; the rest of the lake is completely frozen.) Shortly afterward we ran into Sue and Phil Probst, and walked back to The Cove with them to view the Pintails. I had seen a male Northern Pintail in the same place just over a month ago, on December 28; at the time I didn't see the female. Apparently he (or they) are wintering there. The open water is too small for the number of birds that are there, and food is evidently very short. Several Mallards were foraging Northern Shoveler-style swimming along (in a straight line) with their lower mandibles in the water trying to scoop up something to eat; several other Mallards practically mugged us looking for a handout. The Pintails were foraging on the ice by putting their bills into one tiny melt pool after another (I don't know if that's normal behavior for Pintails or not). Another birder (someone I don't know) said even the Ring-necks and Canvasbacks had joined the crowd of ducks begging for food from someone on the dock yesterday. Sherry Peruzzi Howard County bookworms =at= comcast =dot= net (address munged to foil spammers) ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================