Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 10:06:00 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Chris Starling Subject: Cecil signs of spring and winter Greetings, Yesterday morning on my way home from work I took a few moment and stopped by the Perryville Town Park and the North East waterfront. Signs of spring were obvious However signs of winter are not gone yet! First the Winter signs: In Perrryville most of of Mill Creek is still iced over as a result very little waterfowl could be found close to shore. Furnace Bay appeared to be open and is probably holding thousands of ducks, geese, and swans. I was able to spot the following species, though numbers were very low: Tundra Swan, Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Lesser Scaup, Ring- necked Duck, Bufflehead, and Common Merganser. Also on the ice were about 200 Gulls. Amoung them I was able to find 2 Lesser Black-backed's. In North East the harbor (town park) was iced over and at least 7500 gulls had taken up roosting there from the "Jackson House" down to North East Isle, out to the main channel marker. Of the gulls I was able to see well I was only able to find 2 more Lesser Black-back's. Sean McCandless' Iceland Gull was nowhere to be found. At North East Isle I had Redhead, Ring-necked Duck, Mallard, Canada Goose, and Common Merganser. Now for signs of spring. For some reason the air temp at North East was 8 degrees warmer then at Perryville. Perhaps this prompted the following species to start singing their little hearts out: Song Sparrow!, Titmouse, Cardianl, House Sparrow, Carolina Wren, & White-throated Sparrow. The air was so thick with bird song that I was having trouble telling where certain songs were coming from! I also have had Mallards doing thier head-bobbing mating ritual at my house for at least 2 weeks now... A Bald Eagle was seen in Shelter Cove yesterday at my house in Hances Point, North East. Also a Belted Kingfisher was fishing from the wood duck box in the cove all day as well. Good Birding, Chris Starling North East, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================