Conowingo Today

Rick Blom (rblom@blazie.com)
Sat, 24 Jan 1998 16:50:07 -0500


        Spent five hours at Conowingo Dam today. There were about 1,000
gulls. Among the usual loiterers there was an adult LESSER BLACK-BACKED, a
1st winter GLAUCOUS, and a gorgeous adult ICELAND (KUMLEIN'S). The
Peregrine Falcon was about in the morning and there were about 12 BALD
EAGLES. 20 TUNDRA SWANS flew over.
        There was no evidence of the Common Gull, but there were two
different 1st winter Ring-billed Gulls that would have been easily mistaken
for the Common Gull by an unwary observer. There was also a report of a
Golden Eagle - ignore it. The observers were looking at a Black Vulture and
were not interested in being corrected. We stopped trying after a few
seconds.

        In addition, since January 17 there has been an adult MERLIN at
Sparrows Point in Baltimore County. I have seen it three times from the
Beltway (I-695) about one mile east of the Key Bridge. The bird is fond of
sitting on one of the string of four telephone (not light) poles along the
highway.

Rick

"Everywhere I go I'm asked if the university stifles writers. My opinion is
that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a bestseller that could
have been prevented by a good teacher."  Flannery O'Connor

Rick Blom
rblom@blazie.com
Bel Air, Maryland