Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 07:49:41 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Scott Crabtree Subject: Queen Anne's Sparrow Quest was Just Duckie MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit All; The Talbot Chapter had a trip to the Chesapeake Wildlife Heritage (CWH) property along Bennett Point Road in Queenstown on Sunday, November 9th. Fifteen people joined in, some from as far away as Hagerstown, College Park, Baltimore, and DC! While the trip was to be a sparrow quest, it turned out that the highlights were the ducks. The trip totaled 59 species, with only limited results on sparrows. The Savannahs were numerous, but only gave fleeting glimpses. Songs, Swamps, and Fields were a bit more cooperative, but only just barely. With the number of hunting Sharpies around, it was understandable! Two or three Juncos also popped up when spished. The CWH property is a reclaimed farm that has been restored to a greater semblance of its original wetlands and warm-season grass origins. Access is limited to ensure that it continues to provide a refuge for wetland species, and the numbers of ducks we had reflect that nature. We encountered over 200 Green-winged Teal, 100+ Pintails, 20+ Wood Ducks. There were also some American Widgeon, Mallards, Shovelers, Gadwall, a single Blue-winged Teal, several Black Ducks, four Ring-necked Ducks, a single Bufflehead, several Ruddy Ducks, a few coots, numerous Canada Geese, and a single Pied-billed Grebe. Other highlights include a late-ish Osprey and Blue-headed Vireo, migrating Tundra Swans, two Eastern Meadowlarks, and a heard Red-breasted Nuthatch. Both kinglets were present, with several Ruby-crowneds giving killer views at "no binoculars needed" range. On the way home, I stopped off at the Kent Narrows public area near the Jetty restaurant. Two Common Loons and a third-winter Herring Gull were the highlights. The third-winter gull is an uncommon age-class to encounter, but the smudgy black sub-terminal band on all but the outer retrices gave it away. Many thanks to Andi Pupke and Susanna Scallion of CWH for arranging and guiding the visit through this exciting property. Scott Crabtree Chester, MD crabtree@myshorelink.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================