Date: Sun, 2 Mar 2003 19:12:04 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Jed Kusterer Subject: Red-Necked Grebe off Roosevelt Island Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Disposition: inline Hello all, Madaline and I walked Roosevelt Island (Potomac River, Washington, DC) today (3/2/03). At 1pm we walked out to the rocks from the north end of the swamp boardwalk and surveyed East over the main body of the river. About 25 meters from shore we saw a Red-Necked Grebe in winter plumage with only a slight trace of rust on the breast. We got very good looks at close range. The long, thick, mostly yellow bill, white "ear" patch, size and shape were all observed. Having seen hundreds of RNGR on Lake Superior I'm sure of the ID. At home, I compared Sibley and National Geographic for range maps. Interesting that Sibley restricts the wintering range to New England Coast with many vagrant sightings South through Maryland. Nat. Geo. extends the wintering range through the Chesapeake. _Field list of the Birds of Maryland_ (Iliff et al., 1996) shows RNGR regular in Maryland only in late Feb and March with PG and MO counties NOT having a sighting every year. Of course, this bird was seen in DC proper. I guess the MD surge in March is migration related, rather than wintering. Someone commented before on dozens of RNGR seen apparently wintering on a lake in W. Virginia. That seems like a significant find! I think there is still alot of confusion amongst experts about the population numbers, breeding grounds, migration routes AND wintering grounds of the RNGR. Thousands of birds are recorded migrating over Whitefish Point Bird Observatory on Lake Superior each Fall. Where do they go? It is thought that most go to the New England coast. Since they prefer deep, open water for wintering, I suppose it is possible that larger numbers than anyone yet knows winter in the Chesapeake. Does anyone have more information about this? Regards, Jed Kusterer Washington, DC ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================