Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 19:48:17 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Fred Pierce Subject: New Year birds MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Unless I missed something (which is entirely possible since I seem to have become unsubscribed for a while), nobody reported first bird sightings of the year so thought I'd provide mine. First heard was a GH Owl, and first sight was a Herring Gull. I decided to do something different and camped at Assateague. Only partying I encountered were the owl and the Sika deer, who were whooping it up about 2 a.m. New Year's day I hiked toward the inlet (I started late so wasn't enough daylight to complete the trek, but I *could* have. Just wanted to make that clear). Highlight of that was seven eagles in a fishing frenzy. Quite a sight. On the way back I was feeling just a little foot-weary but someone had thoughtfully left a beach chair for my convenience. As I sat down, directly in front of me was the only non-loon visible oceanside, a female Black Scoter (wasn't that the American Scoter last week? I can't keep up.) I felt as though I was in a Dali painting, the lone duck, beach chair, and me on a barren beach. Actually I was looking for the nude beach, or a Snowy Owl, but didn't find either. I don't recall a time of day mentioned in the sightings reported here. Early morning, late evening, or do they flaunt themselves in broad daylight? I mean the Owls. Drove down the ORV zone a while late Wednesday afternoon but didn't see anything. Other neat sightings were a covey of 5, possibly 6 Bob-whites on the dune trail and a couple of Woodcock zooming around near the campground. One of them peented(?) a few times which surprised me a bit, but maybe they normally do that on New Year's day? Most of the waterfowl were beyond binocular range and I'm too lazy to lug the scope around. Nearest to a camp bird this time was a Harrier who nearly intercepted me when I first arrived and was seen often patrolling the camp area. Yellow-rumps were around but not visible so they don't get the title. I stopped to look for the Eurasian Widgeon at Deal Island on the way back Sunday but the flock was backlit and my eyes/optics/patience were not up to the task of seperating it from the regular Baldpate-Widgeon critters. Since it's off-topic but I think will be of interest to Marylanders, I will post some news from the Virginia end in a seperate message. fdp -------------------------------------------------------------------- Fred Pierce (DNRC)- fpierce@avialantic.com Mid-Atlantic Aviation on the Web - http://www.avialantic.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================