Re: [MDOsprey] "The Bird Who Snagged Me"
Robert (robert@csa.com)
Thu, 26 Aug 1999 10:55:56 -0400
At 09:49 PM 08/25/1999 -0400, Phil Davis wrote:
>All -
>
>Tried a hunch yesterday ... didn't work out, but thought I'd relay it to
>you anyway ...
>
>Called the DC Metropolitan Police Harbor Patrol HQ at Water Street,
>SE. Hoped I'd be able to talk to a patrol officer who would know
>instinctively whether the "snags" are in MD or DC.
>
>Probably got a desk officer ... once I convinced him I was not trying to DO
>anything TO the pelican ... rather, just WATCH it ... he became more
>cooperative. He pulled out his map and explained to me that the boundary
>runs from from Jones Point to Fox Ferry Point (TA DAH!).
>
>He said so if you stand at Jones Pt and look at Fox Ferry Point, if the
>snags are on your right, they are in MD, on your left, they are in DC.
Hi Phil,
Are standing at Jones Point itself (south of the bridge), or at the Jones
Point parking lot north of the bridge? The two locations are several
hundred feet apart, and the perspective changes dramatically! At the
parking lot the snags are on your right as you face Fox Ferry Point but
from the point itself they are on your left.
>So, while this is not a news flash, it makes me think more and more that
>the snags are in MD waters. [Again, I have not been back to Jones Pt to
>test any of these hypotheses).
>
>I asked my friendly gendarme if I happen to stop by Harbor Patrol HQ if I
>could look at his map ... thinking it might show some depth gradients ...
>he said "sure", but it's the same map you can buy at a nautical store ...
hmmmm
>
>I noted to Sherm the other day that the annotated photo (from the Microsoft
>Terraserver web site) I sent to Fran and she, in turn, posted on the MOS
>web site, shows light and dark pixels where "I think" the snags are ... and
>this location appears to be clearly in MD waters. We do not know when the
>photo was taken, however.
>
>DC birders -- are these snags indeed stationary from year to year?
No, they most certainly are not!! Some snags may stay there for a year or
more, but nothing is permanent. There is no way those snags could have
been there before the big September 1996 floods. What is the date on the
photo?
>BTW, the bird has now been well seen in MD, DC, VA waters. So, you realize
>this has just become a game of mental gymnastics (or something ...)
>
I finally saw it last Saturday afternoon fly from near the Wilson Bridge
north to just below Oxon Cove mouth, then swim further north, so I
definitely saw it in both jurisdictions. Then it flew over the Wilson
Bridge and headed toward Virginia.
Rob Hilton
>Not so briefly after all,
>
>Phil
>
>
>================================================
>Phil Davis
>
>home: PDavis@ix.netcom.com Davidsonville, Maryland USA
>work: PDavis@OAO.com Greenbelt, Maryland USA
>================================================
>
Rob (Robert) Hilton--*robert@csa.com*--Bethesda, Md. (very close to
Washington, DC)