Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 20:52:08 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Stan Arnold Subject: Rusty Blackbirds, Halethorpe Pond MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks, Bill Hubick and I birded around the Halethorpe Pond (Balt. Co.) this afternoon, and most notable of the avifauna was a flock of about 30 Rusty Blackbirds between the pond and the Patapsco River. This wooded stretch along the Patapsco between I-195 and I-695 has had late winter Rusties for the past three years, but usually I don't see them until March, and have seen them as late as May. The large pond is now more than half open, and the waterfowl are returning. Today there were 26 Gadwall, a pair of Hooded Mergs, and an Am. Coot among the Canada Geese and Mallards. A large crowd of Ring-billed Gulls was enjoying the remaining ice, accompanied by a much less common Herring Gull and Great Black-backed Gull. 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================