Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2003 08:27:58 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Gail Mackiernan Subject: Red-throated Loon still in DC Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Hi all -- Yesterday evening (Sunday) Barry and I decided to go over to Huntley Meadows in (sh-h-h-h) that state to the south and look for reported American Bitterns. En route, we stopped at Roaches Run (three Red-necked Grebes, we hadn't seen any here in early weeks) and then to Four-mile Run to look for the Red-throated Loon seen and reported by John Hubble last Thursday. It was rather cool and breezy with a northerly wind, and we located the loon pretty far in from the river's open water -- in fact, just opposite the Potomack Landing Restaurant, about half-way between the restaurant and the opposite shore (National AP). It is still in full winter plumage. Other birds of interest included two flocks totaling 20 Bonaparte's Gulls, and two Red-necked Grebes. R-T Loon is what DC listers call a "good bird in DC" -- that is, a species which isn't so hard to find in Maryland but which is elusive in the much smaller territory of the nation's capital. This list of "hard DC birds" includes a lot of things one might think of as fairly easy elsewhere -- Long-tailed Duck, Glossy Ibis, Willet, Woodcock, etc. -- and this R-T loon was Barry's and my first for DC. Gail Mackiernan and Barry Cooper Colesville, MD p.s. We didn't see any Bitterns, although one had been seen earlier that afternoon ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================