Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2003 13:58:35 -0800 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Scott Baron Subject: Sandy Point SP, Elliot Island Rd., Blackwater; Mar. 8 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Hi, My friend, Jason Platt, and I visited Sandy Point State Park in Anne Arundel County and Elliot Island Road and Blackwater NWR in Dorchester County on Saturday, March 8. At SPSP we saw 5 Red-necked Grebes, 3 near the Bay Bridge and 2 near the Marina. All but one of these birds was very close to shore. There were over 400 scaup, mixed between Lesser and Greater. Canada Geese were scattered everywhere, as were their droppings. Other waterfowl seen, all in low numbers were Bufflehead, Red-br. Merg., Ruddy Duck, Mallard and Horned Grebe. We heard an Osprey fly overhead. Flocks of blackbirds, mostly Red-winged, I think, were present on the lawns and flying over. On the way to Dorchester Co. we spotted hundreds and hundreds of Canada Geese out of our car's windows in the farm fields. Ring-billed Gulls were present, too, but we never saw any Snow Geese today, not even at Blackwater. Elliot Island Road was very slow. A flock of 13 Killdeer flew by. Common songbirds, including Brown-headed Nuthatches, were present in the pines. There were several harriers and we possibly saw 2 Rough-legged Hawks from far away but my friends and I are both not experienced with this species so I can't confidently say they weren't harriers, although the shape and flight style looked different to me. One bird was hovering for a minute at a time and another flew into a tree and perched for several minutes before flying off, disappearing behind some houses and trees in the village of Elliot. Other raptors here were R.t. Hawk, Bald Eagle, T. Vulture and 1 Osprey at the end of the road at the boat launch. The greatest number of waterfowl were near the launch too, most were Lesser Scaup. The drive to Blackwater revealed more dabbling ducks near the Transquaking River along with 3 Greater Yellowlegs. We did a quick drive on the Wildlife Drive, with one stop. Hundreds of waterfowl were present, flying into or out of the marshes. At least some were ID'd as Pintails. We spotted 2 adult Bald Eagles, one perched on an Osprey platform and one was soaring. We finished by having a nice dinner at Snappers in Cambridge, which I have to say, has an extensive menu. Scott Baron Fairfax, Va. __________________________________________________ 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================