Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2003 19:25:06 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Stan Arnold Subject: White-winged Scoter, SW Balt. Co. Comments: cc: Vinnie Odell , Paul Kreiss , Kevin Omland , Joel Martin , Eugene Parker , "Charles A. Kucera" , Brian Mackay , Karin Readel MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks, Good news: A White-winged Scoter was at the large Halethorpe Pond today. Bad news: It flew away (but heads up, Ft. McHenry!) At about 4 p.m. this afternoon (Tue., 11 Nov), I viewed what appeared to be a 1st year female White-winged Scoter at the far northeastern end of the largest of the many Halethorpe ponds in southwestern Baltimore County (Balt. Co. ADC map 42, C11). The duck was sitting on the water, and when viewed from behind, the white in the wings stood out prominently. I could tell there was white on the face, but I had to wait a couple minutes before the bird turned sideways, and I could see two prominent pale ovals on the face. Once I identified the bird, I headed back to the car to go find Brian Sykes, since he just about lives at this pond, and would be very disappointed to miss it. I returned with Sykes about 40 minutes later, ready to take some photos, but instead of approaching the pond from the southwest, we decided to eliminate some walking and approach from the northeast. This turned out to be fortuitous, because before we even got within sight of the water, a duck almost dive-bombed us as we walked the path toward the pond. The duck flew literally within ten feet of our heads, as we approached the pond, and it flew off to the northeast. Sadly, the duck turned out to be the scoter, and as we watched it fly off, its white wing patches stood out like neon signs. Sad, because the duck left and we never got a photo, but fortuitious, because had we approached from the other direction, we would have missed its departure altogether. While I have little confidence that the scoter will return to this pond, in case it does, here are some directions: From I-695 southwest of Baltimore (exit 10 from WESTbound I-695; alternate routing required from eastbound), take Washington St. (alt US 1) southwest for a mile or so, then turn left onto Halethorpe Farms Rd. Go about a mile to the end of the road, and park along the curb, near the state park gate. Walk around the gate along the gravel path, under I-895 to the ponds, then turn left, and follow the gravel path along the north shore of the big pond. The duck was near the far end. To me, it's more likely that the scoter would show up somewhere downstream along the Patapsco River, perhaps in the vicinity of the Harbor Hospital, or across the water at Ft. McHenry. The Halethorpe Pond hosted other birds during my visit. Highlights include a GREAT EGRET (there since Spring), five GADWALLs, three drake HOODED MERGANSERs (first of the season) and about 25 DC CORMORANTs. Stan Arnold Glen Burnie dy.dx@earthlink.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================