Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2004 20:34:23 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Stan Arnold Subject: Siskin; RB Nuthatch in Carroll Co. MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks, Since Bob Ringler hasn't posted this yet, I'll go ahead and mention the fruitful morning of birding that he, Bill Hubick, and I had in Carroll Co. We spent our time at two venues: Liberty Reservoir and Piney Run Reservoir. Liberty offered distant or backlit views of Black Ducks, Mallards, Ring-necked Ducks, Common Mergansers, and Coots. Almost all were in Baltimore Co. waters. Piney Run, in Carroll Co., was much more productive. As we schlepped our scopes along the trails to the far (north?) end of the reservoir, we encountered one very cooperative Red-breasted Nuthatch, flying from cone to cone on an evergreen tree. Once we got to our observation area, we got distant, but adequate, views (across a long stretch of ice) of a sizeable collection of waterbirds, plus a couple raptors. The group included: Pied-billed Grebe Gadwall Am. Black Duck Mallard Green-winged Teal Canvasback Ring-necked Duck Bufflehead Hooded Merganser Common Merganser Ruddy Duck Am. Coot Bald Eagle--imm Red-tailed Hawk--pair in flight Ring-billed Gull Satisfied with the waterbirds, we hiked to the visitor center, where several feeders are set up. Here, we heard the sound of what must be a Pine Siskin. Shortly, Bob picked it out high in a tree, and we watched it take its sweet time descending branch by branch to the feeder below, and then spending a long time at the feeder. Being a life bird for him, Bill was able to get fairly close and shoot several photos. Also in the area were Hairy Woodpecker and Brown Creeper. A fine morning of birds. Thanks for showing us around, Bob. 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================