Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2004 15:15:49 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Scott Crabtree Subject: Kent Island Birds, 24 January 2004 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit At the northwest end of Kent Island is the little community of Love Point. While access to views of the Chesapeake are limited due to private landholdings, at the end of Maryland Ave., one can park and have a decent view. Today, in the open leads among the ice, there was a nice aggregation of bay ducks who found a spot to avoid the hunters. There, Ruddy Ducks were plentiful, and mixed in with them were Canvasbacks, and both Scaup. A small group of Common Goldeneyes were off by themselves, feeding and displaying. Further out were a few Long-tailed Ducks. All were a little leery of the 1st-year Bald Eagle who repeatedly flew over to see who might not be quite alert. It was nice to be able to see both Scaup together, and be able to compare sizes and head shapes. I didn't realize that the Greater is noticeably larger than the Lesser, although one (I) should have known that by the name! As a group swam towards me, I could really see the broader head shape of the Greater, as seen head-on. That characteristic is well-illustrated in Sibley. Further south, below US 50, is Mattapeake State Park, a very small park with a fishing pier that extends out into the Bay about 100 yds. (There is no fee for the park through 1 March.) While it was pretty bitter out at the end of the pier, it does give great views of the Bay in all directions. The duck assemblage was no different than at Love Point, but it's a nice spot to look over a larger section of the Bay. With very little wind and heat shimmer, it was nice to be able to crank the Nikon 82mm scope up to 75X for looks at distant birds. I have always found that it's a rare day when one can use high power. I quit when the snow started coming in with more earnestness! Scott Crabtree Chester, MD crabtree@myshorelink.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================