Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2003 15:43:14 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: David Mozurkewich Subject: PG county Storm birds. In-Reply-To: <20031107184515.35888.qmail@web12401.mail.yahoo.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Friday, November 7, 2003 I spent the morning and early afternoon checking my favorite spots for interesting birds brought in by the storm. Nothing rare, but a good number of critters that seemed either a little out of place or in larger than normal numbers. Lake Artemesia -- 104 Buffleheads and a Dunlin. My previous high count for Buffleheads in the park was single digits. As far as I know, the latter is new for the park and makes the one hundred ninetieth (190) species I've seen along this three-mile stretch of Indian Creek. The good pond at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center produced 30 Buffleheads, a female Goldeneye, Harrier and a late HOUSE WREN. The sparrow fields were dead. I found nothing of note on the east side of the county. Piscataway does not yet have a large number of waterfowl, but diversity is growing: The first 3 Tundra Swans and Scaup of the season, another female Goldeneye, (this one in a more expected location), hundreds of Bufflehead (I did not see any here last weekend) 30 Wood Ducks, and a LONG-TAILED DUCK. The Long-tailed Duck was seen from the end of Wharf Road flying toward the mouth of Piscataway Creek. In the non-waterfowl category, Piscataway also harbored 24 Great Egrets, another Harrier and an adult RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. The woodpecker was at the traditional spot -- at the end of the boardwalk spur -- but despite regular checks, I have not seen them there since April 1998. I expect it will spend the winter. I hope it's the start of a new colony. Dave David Mozurkewich Seabrook, PG MD USA mozurk at bellAtlantic.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================