Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 15:33:09 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Gail Mackiernan Subject: Birding in DC today, 3/10 Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Hi all -- Cold and pretty windy today but we had good birding nevertheless. We initially hoped to catch up with Clive Harris' Iceland Gull but the ice at the Tidal Basin is gone, and there were relatively few gulls. However, we saw: 20 Red-necked Grebes between Tidal Basin and Washington Channel -- the Potomac itself was wind-swept and choppy and we didn't see any grebes on the river side of Hains Point. Also: 4 Horned Grebes, 1 Pied-bill Grebe, about 25 Red-breasted Mergansers, 3 Canvasbacks (Hains Pt.), a nice pair of Redheads (Tidal Basin), 8 American Wigeon (Washington Channel), scattered Lesser Scaup. Also at the Tidal Basin, 1 adult Merlin zipped overhead. We then went to the National Arboretum, where we enjoyed nice looks at 2 Red-breasted Nuthatches at Hickey Hill overlook (in pines along the road, sheltered side of the hill, in a mixed bird flock). Also a Hermit Thrush there. At the Asian Collection, managed to find the Orange-crowned Warbler after some searching, loosely in a mixed flock near the little building. Also three Towhees, 2 Fox Sparrows, 3 Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, Horned Owl, an Osprey over the Anacostia, and both Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks, plus the expected local birds. Gail Mackiernan and Barry Cooper gail@mdsg.umd.edu ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================