Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2004 20:41:33 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Adam Smith Subject: American White Pelicans at Blackwater NWR MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Today at approximately 415pm, (3) American White Pelicans, all appeared = to be in adult plumage, paid a visit to Blackwater National Wildlife = Refuge. Taking the first left once you enter the Wildlife Drive you = have an option to park and take the short footpath through the woods or = continue on to an Eagle observation area that is a empty parking lot = with an interpretive sign. Upon arriving at the parking lot I glanced = up and saw three large birds with black wing tips. At first I thought = snow geese, but I stopped the vehicle and quickly took a look with my = binoculars and saw bright yellow bills and throat pouches. =20 I jumped out of the car and grabbed my scope and watched them land out = in the water. I tried several times to get a "digi-scope" picture, but = they were moving fairly fast and kept escaping the objective and/or the = grasses were interfering with the shot. Now before you pack and head out to see them, they only stayed about 5 = minutes then headed southerly out of my line of sight. So I cannot say = where they are now. They were really impressive birds, a new bird for = my LIFE and MD list. What I can't get over is how lucky myself and my friend were to see = them. Normally, my first stop in Blackwater is the parking lot on the = left and the footpath, to tack on several woodland birds; but since we = were pressed for time we decided to forego the normal stop and hit the = other parking area. If we would have been five minutes later or earlier = we never would have seen the birds. I guess this makes up for all of = the other birds we missed today(see my other post). Adam Smith Arbutus MD cyanbluecobalt@msn.com =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D =========================================================================