Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2004 13:39:16 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Kurt Schwarz Subject: Lapping up the Iceland, FredCo A friend and I ventured out to Oland Rd. to rendezvous with a FredCo buddy, and hunt the Longspurs, at about 8 a.m. Even the larks proved elusive, but we ulitmately found them quite far out on some bare ground, and moving about in the corn stubble. We were joined by two MontCo stalwarts, as well as a gentleman from Ohio, and a few drive-by birders. Everyone came up dry on the longspurs, until the fellow from Ohio commented that he was used to finding them in corn stubble. So I wandered down a bit past the not-so-freshly manured patch, so I was facing the stubble area head one. I took three or four scans with the scope until I finally picked out a longspur. We ultimately found 2-3. We were also treated to 4 Tundra Swans, that briefly landed. A larger group of 15 flew by. The field IS being hunted for Canada Geese, all of whom gave it a wide berth, aside from the half a dozen when we first arrived. The hunters all missed. From there to the FredCo Land Fill. A white-winged gull was spotted pretty early on, but never long enough to pin an i.d. on it. It was in front of the area where trash is being dumped, and moved around by heavy equipment. It was later found in the temporary puddle to the left of the trash face, when we finally nailed down the species. The bird is an immature, I frankly cannot say what year. The bulk of the gulls were Ring-Billed, with a few Herrings. No black-backs of any flavor were present. If there was a Thayer's out there, it was beyond our talents to trick out. Abundant Black and Turkey Vultures, a few Fish and American Crows rounded out the tally. I finally ticked two elusive state birds, Lapland and Iceland. And the temperatures were appropriate. Oddly, we saw heat shimmer at Oland Rd.! Kurt Schwarz HowCO goawaybird@comcast.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================