Southern Maryland Weekend

Norm Saunders (osprey@ARI.Net)
Mon, 1 Dec 1997 19:43:32 -0500 

This is to all of you who are curious about our Southern Maryland
weekend, and also to our very own Voice, Jane Hill.  Jane, pardon the
dual nature of the note.  Our Southern Maryland birding began, oddly
enough, on Thanksgiving day as we drove out I-70 to my sister's house
in Frederick.  Somewhere in the Frederick Valley, nearing the
intersection of I-70 and US 15, Fran spotted a gorgeous ROUGH-LEGGED
HAWK being harassed apparently by an AMERICAN KESTREL (or could the
Rough-leg simply have been trying for its Thanksgiving dinner?).

The next morning (Friday, 28 November) we set out for Anne Arundel
County where we fairly quickly located the ROSS'S GOOSE at the pond
with the willows.

Next we moved down through Calvert County, stopping at North Beach,
Chesapeake Beach, Breezy Point, Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Reactor, and
Cove Point.  Some of these spots were better than others and Flag
Ponds wasn't open (sigh).  The most productive locales were North
Beach (I'm envious, Stasz, okay?), the nuke reactor, and Chesapeake
Beach, in that order.  We had lots of COMMON LOON, HORNED GREBE,
OLDSQUAW, BLACK and SURF SCOTER, a few COMMON GOLDENEYE and more
BUFFLEHEAD than we knew existed in the world.  Best gull of the day
was an adult LESSER BLACK-BACKED at Chesapeake Beach.

Lunch was at the Rod & Reel, in Chesapeake Beach--slow service, high
prices, uninspired food...go to McDonalds instead if you get stuck
here for lunch.  Dinner, on the other hand...mmmmmmm.  We went to the
Lighthouse in Solomon's Island--an expensive seafood restaurant and
worth every penny spent!

The next day, Saturday, 29 November, was focussed on St. Mary's
County.  A tip of the hat to Tyler Bell for his suggested birding
locales.  We birded Airedale Road, Long Neck Road, Cornfield Harbor
Road, Point Lookout, and the St. Mary's River at St. Mary's itself. 
We tallied many more COMMON LOON, both PIED-BILLED and HORNED GREBE,
the latter in VERY good numbers (alas, we didn't see any Western
Grebes...sigh), and 13 species of waterfowl.  We had probably the best
looks in our entire lives of all three SCOTER, COMMON GOLDENEYE, and
of the ubiquitous OLDSQUAW, all seen from short distances off the end
of the fishing pier at Point Lookout.  Other interesting birds were a
late BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER and a largish flock (75-100) of AMERICAN
PIPITS along Cornfield Harbor Road.

We had lunch back in Solomons Island at Catamarans, a good, reasonably
priced seafood sandwich place.  After lunch we went to Flag Ponds
Park, a locale we have promised to return to in spring migration.  We
didn't see any exceptional birds there but we were able to fill in our
Calvert County list with a lot of the winter landbirds we'd been
missing till then.  Dinner was at The Pier in Solomons Island.  Why
are oysters seemingly so much more expensive the closer you get to the
Bay???

Sunday morning we got away early and headed for Charles County, where
we birded Allen's Fresh, Morgantown, Banks O'Dee, Swan Point and Cobb
Island.  Best birds of the day were a truly delightful mixed flock of
EASTERN BLUEBIRDS, HOUSE FINCHES, HOUSE SPARROWS, and CHIPPING, FIELD,
SAVANNAH, SONG, WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS and DARK-EYED JUNCO, all seen
at one small location along Banks O'Dee Road.

Just to round out our list of fine eateries, we had lunch at
Shimansky's, just before you cross the bridge into Cobb Island.  Good,
basic food, low prices, good old boys at the bar...what a place!

All told we had 78 species for the weekend, we learned a bit more
about Southern Maryland, and we came away with a growing appreciation
for the potential for birds in three southern neighbor counties!

We had one particular target bird for the trip...blue jay in St.
Mary's County...that adds one more to our still tiny list of birds
seen in every county!

Thanks to all for their suggestions about places to bird...we'll be
back, for sure!

Norm & Fran

===============
Norm Saunders
Colesville, MD
osprey@ari.net