Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2003 14:36:43 -0800 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Mark Miller Subject: Brown Creeper and Hooded Mergansers at Patuxent MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii I went for an afternoon walk at Patuxent today, and this time remembered to bring my binoculars and field guide. My favorite sightings were a Brown Creeper, several Hooded Mergansers, and a few Rusty Blackbirds. I triple checked the Brown Creeper to make sure it was not a Carolina Wren, since it has been a while since I've stumbled across a Creeper. I also had my first Flicker of the year, 40 Ring-necked Ducks and maybe 20 more common backyard species. While walking through the woods along River Road next to the Patuxent River I rounded a corner and saw several hundred blackbirds foraging in a one tiny area of the forest floor. I thought at first I had found a flock of Rusty Blackbirds. There were a few Rusty Blackbirds there, but almost all of the birds were Common Grackles. I do not know why they would be converging on that one little spot. There were only a few small trees in the immediate area or overhead. I did not find any grebes, but the Hooded Mergansers were very nice. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/ ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================