Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2003 22:13:27 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Stan Arnold Subject: W. MD Waterfowl; NRW Swallow MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks, Following this morning's bird walk in Howard Co., I headed west to try to plug in some gaps in my county lists. What I found is that the flooding of the Potomac River in many places has left it almost devoid of waterfowl, whereas lakes and ponds are faring much better. I was only able to pick up Red-necked Grebe in Washington Co., while dipping in Allegany and Frederick counties. The rundown: Allegany Co.--there was very little birdlife at the terminus in Cumberland; a single Bufflehead and a few Mallards was it. About a mile downstream (along the Canal Parkway) there were three Horned Grebes, and another Bufflehead. There was no sign of the Red-necked Grebes that JB Churchill and Ray Kiddy had found earlier. Further down the parkway, at the bridge into W. Virginia, there was a pair of Common Mergansers along the Maryland side. I stopped at Rocky Gap State Park, but there were no red-necks there, either. Nevertheless, the lake had ten Horned Grebes, eight Ring-necked Ducks, eleven L. Scaup, a Bufflehead, and two pairs of Red-breasted Mergansers. Washington Co.--captivated by Dave Perry's report of waterfowl at Big Pool, I stopped there, and was very pleased with the results. Dave had reported two Red-necked Grebes there, but without walking the entire length of the pool, I counted eleven. This, undoubtedly, due to the high, fast water in the river nearby, compeling the birds to visit the gentle waters of the pool instead. I had five of them within a minute or two of the parking area. Other birds of interest there: a pair of Ring-necked Ducks, a Lesser Scaup, a Common Goldeneye, and 12 Buffleheads. Also an Osprey and three Tree Swallows graced the air. Frederick Co.--I stopped at Point of Rocks, and the Potomac was way up, and the area was quite flooded. I also attempted to access the river from the end of New Design Road, but the road was under water. I then went to the Monocacy Aqueduct, where Dave Powell recently found a Red-necked Grebe, and again, this area was quite flooded. The only waterfowl in the area were two drake Lesser Scaup. A NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW at the bridge was a year-first for me. Not a very productive outing, but a beautiful day to be out wasting time! Stan Arnold Glen Burnie dy.dx@verizon.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================