Date: Mon, 8 Mar 2004 12:56:30 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Carol /Oscar Ghebelian Subject: Re: Charles County Birds - March 7, 2004 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit gad, what a bonanza day!! carol "George M. Jett" wrote: > > Folks > > Yesterday Gwen took me to King George and Westmoreland County, > Virginia to work on my Big Charles County year. All the birds on the > Potomac are Maryland birds and based on a tip from Todd Day, we headed > to Virginia's Westmoreland State Park. The target species was > Red-necked Grebe. We did not find the target species, but had some > great flocks of waterfowl once we got down to George Washington's > birth place. Colonial Beach and north was pretty dull with the > highlight being four Horned Grebe up to that point. > > At the GW birth place we hit one of the largest flocks of duck I have > every observed on the river. We easily had 600 + Canada Geese, 200 > Tundra Swan (on the MD side), 50+ Gadwall (in the VA shallows), 150 > Canvasback, 3500 Greater Scaup, perhaps 30 Common Goldeneye, maybe 100 > Bufflehead, up to seven Surf Scoters, two Northern Shovelers, and we > don't know what else. We also had about six more Horned Grebe before > a fishing boat came racing through, and flushed the flock before we > could fully survey them. > > South at Westmoreland we had perhaps five Red-throated Loon, two > Common Loon (along the way), lots more Scaup (this time mixed but > mostly Greater - some of which may have been north before the fishing > boat event), upwards of 2000 Ruddy Ducks, two more Surf Scoters, and a > smattering of Bufflehead. Westmoreland is on the Charles County/Saint > Mary's line on the Potomac, and offers an opportunity to work on both > county lists while sitting at the picnic table scanning the water. > > The Osprey conservative (I hate to be associated with that word) count > on the VA side was about 12 birds. Gwen heard only one Eastern > Bluebird during the entire time in VA. This animal needs additional > help to grow the population after two hard winters. More later on > that. > > At home we enjoyed the continued visits of the Fox Sparrows (six > today), and Rusty Blackbirds. Up to 35 briefly stopped over early > this morning - only six males yesterday. One male particularly enjoys > split peanuts and is pretty reliable. The others did not stay long. > Three Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers and one Ruby-crowned Kinglet continue > to consume the peanut butter. > > And finally the best news. Between 5:45 and 6:10 PM about 700 Canada > Geese were calling and heading north in waves to breed. In the forth > wave One WHITE MORPH SNOW GOOSE was easily seen to the east of the > house. This is yard bird # 154 and a long awaited addition. Patients > paid off. It only took the first 540 Canada's to find the first Snow > Goose for the property. It is very hard to get a new yardbird. Only > two all of last year. A good start and number 49 for the year. An > unidentified number of Tundra Swans were also on the move last night, > but out of sight both before and after the sunset. > > Still on the mend but having a better time of it. > > Regards > > George > > ====================================================================== > = > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > ======================================================================= -- Carol Ghebelian Indian Head, MD gheb@bellatlantic.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================