Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 20:33:24 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Louis Nielsen Subject: Pickering Creek, mostly MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit An all day trip through Talbot, Queen Annes and Kent Counties yesterday (4/16) but the high point was at Pickering Creek preserve. At 8 a.m. there were 25 Greater and 5 Lesser Yellowlegs, 5 Least Sandpipers, 4 Killdeer, 1 Dunlin (just beginning to get some black on the belly) and two Laughing Gulls in alternate plumage. Also found an Orchard Oriole in the big tree above the house by the barn, 2 Wood Ducks in the little pond by the blind. To confuse the issue on Brown Thrashers at the bend in the road, I found two of them (but only one was singing). Down the road, on Forest Landing Rd., Purple Martins were busy and noisy. The other great sight was from Kent Narrows where I saw, just at dawn, a huge flock of Common Loons (100+) headed north. I've never seen so many at one time. Anyone out there know about COLO flocks in migration? From their altitude I presume that they likely started the morning from the Western shore near the Bay Bridge. Lou Nielsen Reisterstown, MD clodvigii@aol.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================