Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2004 06:38:50 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Scott Crabtree Subject: Queen Anne's County - 8 February MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Well, that's what I get for not checking Osprey before setting out! Not knowing about the Boh-wing, we set out to check the fields of northern and eastern QA county on Sunday. Started off in Millington, and worked our way south along the back roads. (Unicorn Fishing Pond Park looked like good habitat for migrants later in the year.) Without any snow, the field birds were widely distributed. Just about any likely looking field would yield a couple of Horned Larks, but no other interesting birds. There were plenty of Red-tailed Hawks, Am. Kestrels, and the only Red-shouldered Hawk I've seen this winter. However, on Ell Downes Road, there was an enormous flock of Snow Geese. I estimate it at around 7,000, but I'm known for underestimating counts of large flocks. Scanning the closest edge, I saw no Ross's Geese. Closer to Caroline county, I saw a distant loose aggregation of the Geese flying. Estimates for that gaggle was closer to 10,000. I ended the morning at the Kent Narrows for the close-up views of waterfowl. I reckon that was Stan and Bill I saw leaving as I was setting up, but it was a bit cold to pass the time. 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================