Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2003 16:39:52 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Frank Powers Subject: C&O Canal, MP 7-8 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In addition to the usual suspects, other birds found late this morning and early afternoon were: Red-necked Grebe (1) Wood Duck (4 males, 2 females; breeding plumage) Common Merganser (Male & female) Red-breasted Merganser (female) Brown Creeper (saw 1; heard at least 2 others) Eastern Bluebird (male - first of the year in this area) The Potomac was incredibly high and fast. Much of the lowlands between the canal and the river was underwater. The Mergansers seemed to be playing in rather swift parts of the current around islands. The Wood Ducks were in calmer, but still fast flowing water between the islands and the bank. The Red-necked Grebe found the calmest water around. What normally is the creek that runs under the Cabin John Bridge (Cabin John Creek?) and the canal had become a nice size lagoon. It had the lagoon/creek to itself for quite a while, until a Mallard drake invaded. Given the small area, it was never far away, tho' frequently out of sight as it dove continually. Great views of a neat bird on a gorgeous day. My, my. One could be encouraged to take up birding full-time after days like this. Good birding, Frank Powers Glen Echo, MD Montgomery County ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================