Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2003 19:27:32 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Robert Ringler Subject: Re: red-necked grebe in Loch Raven Reservoir MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lori, The bird in the Wood Duck box was certainly something other than a grebe. They are not cavity nesters but anchor there floating nests into emergent vegetation such as cattails. Nevertheless your first bird is one of the latest Red-necked Grebe ever for Maryland, though there may yet be others somewhere around the state. Bob Ringler ----- Original Message ----- From: Lori Kay Brown To: Sent: Saturday, June 21, 2003 4:20 PM Subject: [MDOSPREY] red-necked grebe in Loch Raven Reservoir > Dear Osprey -- > > I am newly returned to this list, so I apologize if this is a repeat sighting, but I was very surprised to see a red-necked grebe in MD in June. > > Saturday, June 21, 2003 > off Dulaney Valley Rd. > Loch Raven Reservoir, north of Baltimore, MD > All birds seen from a canoe. > 1 adult male red necked grebe > possibly a second, in a wood duck box. > > The grebe was sighted swimming and diving out in the middle of the reservoir. I was in a canoe w/ my binoculars, and got as close as a couple hundred feet. We observed the bird for about 10 minutes. The bird was in breeding plumage, w/ a rusty neck, white on the front of the neck. The white on the front of the neck extended up under the bird's chin and onto the lower part of his face. The top of his head and his back was the same dark brown/gray mottled color. Bill was yellow and black. He had those sort of knobby looking ear-like crests on the back corners of his head. And he had the unmistakable oval body shape, longish thin neck, and sharply pointed bill held perpendicular to the water. > Light was very good, very little glare. I have seen many of this bird before, in winter, but never in the summer, in breeding plumage in this area. > > At a wood duck box earlier the same afternoon, my companion saw another bird that he says looked very similar to the grebe I saw afterwards. This other bird was sticking its head out of a wood duck box. I didn't see this second bird myself, so I can't verify its species, but if what he thinks he saw is correct, there might be a breeding pair of red-necked grebes in the Loch Raven Reservoir. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================