1/30/99 Mid-winter Count @ APG (long)

David W. Webb (webb@netfox.net)
Wed, 03 Feb 1999 23:20:27 -0800


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