Date: Sat, 7 Feb 2004 20:22:40 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Jim Stasz Subject: BOHEMIAN WAXWING - Directions & Hints MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks! The Bohemian Waxwing was in a flock of about 1000 Cedar Waxwings feeding on berry-laden small trees in the Tuckahoe Nursery. Ed Boyd, Zach Baer & I found the bird at 3:45 PM. All of the birds left for roost by 4:30 PM. I suspect that the flock will return. Tuckhoe Nursery is on the south side of John Brown Road and the berry-laden trees are viewable from the east side of Rt. 18. From US 301, go west on John Brown Road [Delorme 50, 1-B] and park along John Brown Rd. just before the intersection with Rt. 18. There is adequate road shoulder for parking here and John Brown Road is not as highly traveled as Rt.18. There are no shoulders suitable for parking along Rt. 18 near the nursery, but a few places along Rt. 18 just south of the nursery. We do not have permission to enter the nursery, and if we did, I believe it would be counterproductive. The birds can be seen from the walkable grassy shoulder of Rt. 18 and entering the nursery would only serve to scare them off. The nursery stock is planted in east-west rows that parallel John Brown Rd. About 40 rows south of John Brown are 5 or 6 rows of some berry-laden small tree - loads of red berries on the trees and on the ground. Many waxwings were feeding on the ground! You can easily set up a scope on tripod and look down the rows from the east side of Rt. 18. Every once in a while a waxwing flock would fly from the nursery and over Rt. 18 and land just west of the road. The west side has an old gravel pit that is bordered along Rt 18 with a line of Loblolly Pine and then a berm about 15 feet high. The berm is planted with hawthorns that also have berries [but I did not see any waxwings feeding there]. After a while, they fly back to the nursery. In flight the Bohemian Waxing is noticeably larger, almost the size of a Starling. It is gray underneath [no white belly] and has red undertail coverts. Think "Gray Catbird" with a short tail. If you arrive early, plan to look into the Sun. I believe the birds will be there all day again [a waxwing flock estimated at 500 birds was seen here about 8:30 AM. Other sighting of Interest today: Ed Boyd, Matt Hafner, Zach Baer & Mike Burchett did some looking .... 2 Common Mergansers in The Bay, seen from Hemmingway's Restaurant. [from the east side of the Bay Bridge, head south on Rt. 8 and then west along the first road all the way to the end. Light is excellent in the morning; a scope is needed. [Delorme 49, B-5] Lots of waterfowl, some very close, at the parking lot by Kent Narrows. Take Rt. 50 east and cross Kent Narrows, take the first exit, then west [right] on Old Queenstown Road about .25 miles and left onto Wells Cove Rd. Take Wells Cove the entire .25 miles to the public parking area. Greater & Lesser Scaup & Canvasback were very close to shore. 3 Redheads were found by scanning the many ducks in the area. A 1st Winter Lesser Black-backed Gull was on the jetty to the west. [Delorme 49, B-6] Further east, along Sparks Road in Caroline County, a large Snow Goose flock [est.20,000] had at least 2 Ross's Geese; later in the day Danny Poet found an Atlantic Brant!!! in the same flock. Cruising the fields to the east were several Northern Harriers and 2 Rough-legged Hawks. From US 301 [a few miles north if John Brown Road] , head east on Rt. 304, through Ruthsburg, and then turn right onto Mason Branch Road. Take Mason Branch Road into Caroline County, left on Cherry Lane, then right on Clark's Lane all the way to the stop, then right on Sparks Rd which you follow about 1.5 miles to its intersection with Dean Rd. & Stevenson Rd [park in this area]. The goose flock was in the field bordered by Sparks, Dean and Mason Branch Rd. The rough-leggeds were over the fields west of Sparks Road near Stevenson Road. [Delorme 51, B-4,C-4] There were no intersting gulls at Beulah Landfill in Dorchester, on the river in the town of Choptank, Caroline, or at Easton Landfill, Talbot. Good Birding! Jim Jim Stasz North Beach MD jlstasz@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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================