Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 12:25:43 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Rob Hilton Subject: DC bird highlights, November 8 and 9 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Near the Visitor Center at Rock Creek Park on the morning of Saturday, November 8, I spotted 1 female Purple Finch perched in a tree, and later at a nearby spot I found two female Purple Finches. Definitely two and perhaps three birds. In the afternoon, at the mouth of Four Mile Run in DC waters an adult Bald Eagle was standing on a barely submerged mudflat, probably feeding. At sunset I was near the tip of East Potomac Park, not very far from The Awakening statue. I observed an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull sitting in the Potomac River, as well as a Merlin and an adult Peregrine Falcon flying over land. The moonrise was beautiful, but the subsequent eclipse was partially obscured by thin clouds. On Sunday, November 9, I decided on the spur of the moment to visit Kenilworth Park. While there I saw a light morph adult female Rough-legged Hawk moving south over the Anacostia River and the park at about 8:30 am. It came as close as perhaps 200 feet as it resolutely ignored a Cooper's Hawk that was dive-bombing it for a while. After many minutes I lost sight of it as it circled and kited beyond the power station at Benning Road. At one point a helicopter flew near it at a lower altitude; the birds was not preturbed. Other birds in the park included a flock of 9 American Pipits, and several flocks of Horned Larks, the largest being maybe 20 birds. Rob Hilton aimophila10 hotmail Bethesda _________________________________________________________________ MSN Messenger with backgrounds, emoticons and more. http://www.msnmessenger-download.com/tracking/cdp_customize ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================