Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2004 20:24:05 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Fred Shaffer Subject: Southern Prince George's County (Jan. 9) I visited several spots along the Patuxent in Prince George's County today. Schoolhouse Pond had about 800 gulls, but they were all Ring-billed and Herring Gulls when I checked. Also present were around 15 Shovelers. Merkle had 3 White Crowned Sparrows, several White Throated Sparrows and Song Sparrows at the feeders. Large numbers of Canada Geese were present, but no White-Fronted Geese. In the pond behind the visitor's center were several Green-winged Teal, one Red Breasted Mergansers, a Ring-necked Duck, and a pair of Wood Ducks, which was kind of unexpected. River Airport Road had 23 Horned Larks and well over one-thousand Grackles. A Cooper's Hawk came and scattered them all. Lastly, Milltown Landing had 3 American Tree Sparrows, more Song and White Throated Sparrows, a Downy Woodpecker, an Adult Bald Eagle, a Red Tailed Hawk, 3 Northern Harriers (a juvenile, an adult female, and an adult male), and I saw one Short-eared Owl (over the marsh in Anne Arundel County), which tangled briefly with one of the harriers over the marsh. Ducks included Mallards, 41 Black Ducks (mostly coming in at dusk), and another 15 Red Breasted Mergansers. Cardinals, Killdeer, the common gulls, and Double Crested Cormorants were also present. Fred Shaffer Patuxent Bird Club glaucousgull1611@aol.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================