Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2004 08:26:58 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Ralph Wall Subject: C & O Canal--miles 25 and 26 Comments: cc: mike.milton@verizon.net MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The annual C & O Canal winter count yesterday (Sat., Jan.24) covering miles 25 and 26 (which abut the Hughes Hollow area) produced some surprisingly high counts of several wintering species, including 12 Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, 6 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and 14 Brown Creepers. Although the Potomac River was mostly frozen, the open water produced seven duck species: 12 Black Duck, only 2 Mallards, 22 Lesser Scaup, 1 Common Goldeneye, 12 Bufflehead, 11 Hooded Mergansers, and 5 Common Mergansers. The highest count award went to American Crow. A raucous flock of an estimated 500 individuals were spread throughout the trees, over the ground, and on the river ice, a reassuring sign given the West Nile Disease threat to this species. A total of 36 species were tallied by our three-man team. Ralph Wall Great Falls, VA ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================