Folks, Here’s a summary of the mid-winter count that Sue Procell and I did on Aberdeen Proving Ground (Harford County) this past Saturday. 1 RED-THROATED LOON (Chesapeake Bay near Abbey Point) 1 Pied-billed Grebe 4 Great Blue Heron 11 Tundra Swan 577 Canada Goose 151 American Black Duck 203 Mallard 4 Northern Pintail 3 Green-winged Teal 2 Gadwall 2 American Wigeon 4 Canvasback 195 REDHEAD (with scaup raft at mouth of Bush River) 459 Ring-necked Duck 1000 Greater Scaup 6703 Lesser Scaup 2050 scaup sp. 5 Common Goldeneye 1 Bufflehead 8 Hooded Merganser 2 Common Merganser 110 Red-breasted Merganser 4440 RUDDY DUCK (Bush River near Sod Run) 5 Black Vulture 74 Turkey Vulture 25 Bald Eagle 7 Northern Harrier 3 Cooper’s Hawk 9 Red-tailed Hawk 1 American Kestrel 7 Killdeer 7 COMMON SNIPE (in flooded impact area, near Towner Cove) 4 AMERICAN WOODCOCK (displaying at dawn, near Briar Point) 16 Bonaparte’s Gull 421 Ring-billed Gull 3 Great Black-backed Gull 5 Rock Dove 24 Mourning Dove 9 Eastern Screech-Owl 6 Great Horned Owl 1 Barred Owl 1 NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL (calling at dawn, near Briar Point) 1 Belted Kingfisher 4 Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 6 Downy Woodpecker 3 Hairy Woodpecker 37 Northern Flicker 14 Blue Jay 7 American Crow 13 Carolina Chickadee 8 Tufted Titmouse 5 White-breasted Nuthatch 1 Brown Creeper 3 Carolina Wren 1 Winter Wren 2 MARSH WREN (in marshes of Romney Creek) 4 Golden-crowned Kinglet 7 Eastern Bluebird 1 Hermit Thrush 1 American Robin 1 GRAY CATBIRD (near Old Baltimore) 9 Northern Mockingbird 57 European Starling 2 Yellow-rumped Warbler 12 Northern Cardinal 7 Eastern Towhee 3 American Tree Sparrow 5 Savannah Sparrow 23 Song Sparrow 6 Swamp Sparrow 54 White-throated Sparrow 68 Dark-eyed Junco 1350 Red-winged Blackbird 3278 Common Grackle 3450 Brown-headed Cowbird 300000 blackbird sp. 4 American Goldfinch 76 TOTAL SPECIES Missing: House Finch & House Sparrow. Hooray! (If you only care about the count data, stop reading here) *************************************************************** This was one of the best MWCs in my 10 years of counting on post. Nearly every stop we made turned up something worthwhile, whether it was the rafts of bay ducks on the Bush River or secretive Marsh Wrens among the phragmites at Romney Creek. Birding on an Army proving ground is wonderful – there are large tracts of undeveloped land, and on weekends there is very little test activity. Given this backdrop, there are usually lots of birds, both in number and diversity. Birding on an Army proving ground can also be quite adventurous – I submit to you these pieces of evidence. 1. Sue and I had just completed our first owling stop at about 1:30 AM, when we noticed a vehicle driving in our direction. When the vehicle's driver saw our back-up lights come on, he turned on the emergency lights. Yes, it was an MP (military police). As the MP pulled up behind us, we shut off our engines and opened our doors to get out and walk towards him. To put it bluntly, he did not want us to do this and shouted for us to remain in our vehicles. A second MP pulled up and they proceeded to interrogate us. Fortunately, we carry authorization letters with us for such occasions. Within a minute you’d have thought the four of us were old college buddies, smiling and joking about. All the while our only Barred Owl of the count continued to hoot in the background, but I don't think the MPs gave a rat’s ass about the owl. 2. At about 8:00 AM, I noticed a loud noise from the rear of my truck driving to our next stop. I had only registered this pickup the day before, and so was not quite used to all the sounds it normally makes. I assumed the noise was from either the rugged road we were on, or perhaps the vibrations from the tape player which I’d left in the bed. When we finally reached our destination, we saw a large raft of bay ducks and I forgot all intentions of checking the source of this noise. After an hour spent looking at the ducks, we had to quickly return to Sue’s vehicle so that she could attend her daughter’s first confession. But the noise from the back of the truck continued and then I noticed the truck beginning to fishtail. I stopped, got out, and saw that the rear tire was chopped up and that we had been riding on the rim for probably the last half mile. Oh $*%@!!! I’m so new to this vehicle I didn’t even know where the jack and lug wrench are stored. Luckily, a fuel delivery truck passed by and saw us broken down. The driver happened to own the same model pickup and so within 15 minutes he had us back on the road. I drove Sue back to her car, and she eventually made it to the church, but not before her daughter had already made her confession. 3. At about 4:00 PM we were in Sue’s car (to save wear on my spare tire). We were driving on a stretch of dirt road used by Army test vehicles. I did not call in for clearance to be here because from past experience I had learned that weekend tests conducted on this road are completed by early afternoon. (Oh, also, I had left the range radio back in my truck – oops!) Sue parked the car right in the middle of the road, and we proceeded to scan a nearby field for sparrows. I was suddenly shocked to hear a distant rumbling, then looked across a large open field to see a cloud of dust moving along. It was a tank -- headed our way! I yelled for Sue to get her car completely off the road immediately. She did, and shortly afterwards the tank roared past us at high speed. All we could do was grin and wave at the tank as it sped by, cover our optics from the trailing dust storm, and pray that the driver did not radio to the MPs about two trespassers on the test course. Lest we spend a night in the brig, Sue and I got the hell off that dirt road as quick as her car could go. (Just for a little extra sense of danger we included a one-minute stop along the way to check a pond full of dabbling ducks. Hey, that’s how we found our only wigeons and Gadwalls). 4. We finished the day at sunset watching a massive flight of blackbirds swarm into the marshes of Mosquito Creek for their evening roost. Despite a brisk wind gusting at about 20-25 knots, we did so from atop a nearby 100-foot tall range-control tower. This poor old tower is not used anymore by the Army – they know better. It’s a steel-framed structure with eight flights of wooden steps and a dilapidated observation booth at the summit. While ascending the last two flights you hear the wood creak with each step. Honestly, I would not be surprised to hear that it collapses tomorrow. Ah, but the view at sundown is breathtaking, and the vision of a string of blackbirds extending for miles is one not soon forgotten. P.S.: According to my tire dealer, the cost per species for this count came to $4.10. Dave Webb webb@netfox.net Havre de Grace, MD Harford Bird Club