Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 20:00:54 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Stan Arnold Subject: Red-necked Grebe, Calvert Co.; SM Co. birding MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks, Spent the weekend in southern Maryland, mostly at one of my favorite venues: St. Mary's Co. Enroute there yesterday (15 Feb), I scanned the water from Solomon's in Calvert Co., and from the public dock across from the Catholic church was a RED-NECKED GREBE, beginning to get a rouge tint on its neck. Am wondering if we are on the eve of another invasion. In St. Mary's Co., while I was unable to find my target Rough-legged Hawk or any owls (the wind was pretty bad last night), I counted ten AMERICAN PIPITs in a field where Cornfield Harbor Rd. makes a sharp turn through a pair of concrete pillars (this is just north of Point Lookout State Park); the field probably had two to three times as many, as they blended in with the grassy dirt so well. Also in the area, where the road goes straight from Cornfield Harbor Rd., at the end of the public road (before the "posted" signs) was a nice mix of six sparrow species including AM. TREE SPARROW. Also, at the very beginning of Cornfield Harbor Rd., in the woods to the south, a BROWN THRASHER provided only a brief glimpse, but divulged its location with a lengthy series of "chups." Point Lookout State Park had an expected assortment of ducks and land birds. Probably most noteworthy were all three scoters, with WHITE-WINGED SCOTER predominating on the bay side of the causeway, shortly after entering the park, and BLACK and SURF SCOTERs (mostly surf) present at the point by the Coast Guard station (and you now have to walk the short distance from the picnic area parking lot to the point, due to Isabel storm damage). There were plenty of scaup, C. Goldeneyes, Oldsquaws, Buffleheads, and a few RB Mergs around the point. An early afternoon lunch at the Seabreeze Restaraurant in Sandgates today was good, but the Kelp Gull was nowhere to be seen while I was there. The ponds along Abell's Wharf Rd. south of Leonardtown had the same ducks as posted recently by Bob Churi (Gadwall, Am. Wigeon, Redhead, RN Duck, Hoodies; also coot), and most were in very good numbers. WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWs continued in good numbers under the pines down the road, but this time were accompanied by many Fields, Songs, and Juncos. Finished the weekend with about 75 total species, and a handful of county birds. Stan Arnold Glen Burnie dy.dx@earthlink.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================