Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 10:39:57 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Chris Starling Subject: Cecil Birds 12/9 & 12/10 (Vesper Sparrow) Greetings, I have had the last couple of days off so I decided to go back down to southern Cecil County on Tuesday to look for displaced field birds in the snow. before that I stopped by Perry Point to check on the duck situation. The park was closed so I had to make access to Mill Creek via the Veteran's Hopsital. As a result I was unable to see up into Furnace bay where waterfowl numbers were undoubtably high due to much of Mill Creek being froze over. Despite this I still managed to spy a dozen species of "water birds". They were Canada Goose, Mallard, Black Duck, Gadwall, Canvasback (very large flock), Hooded Merg, Common Merg, Bufflehead, Ring-necked Duck, Lesser Scaup, P-b Grebe, & Coot. Unfortuantly my day in southern Cecil County was rather uneventful the only thing that kept it from being a total waste of time was the fact that I manged to find 9 sparrow species most of which were found at Stemmer's Run west of Cecilton. The sparrow seen were: White-throated, Chipping, Field, Tree, Song, Savannah, VESPER, Junco, and one dead Towhee (road kill). raptors were: 4 Red-tailed, 8 Bald Eagle, 1 Kestrel, & 1 Harrier. Also notable is that I seemed to have found a reliable place for Hermit Thrush on Forest Glen Road off of Mickinney Town Road halfway down the Elk Neck penninsula. They have been seen there easily nearly everyday for the past two weeks. Additionaly, there has been a Red-shouldered Hawk and a Red- tailed Hawk roosting there every morning and Tree and Field Sparrows have been found there. Yesterday I was in Fair Hill -Christmas Tree hunting. There I was lucky to glimpse a flock of Horned Lark flying over the tree farm. I was just able to get my binos up quick enough to pick out at least two SNOW BUNTING amoung the fast moving flock. At the same time a flock of 52 Snow Geese passed by just above the tree tops. Good Birding, Chris Starling North East, Md ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================