[MDOsprey] Harney Rd W pond (9/3)

Greg Miller (hawk-owl@yahoo.com)
Fri, 3 Sep 1999 19:59:32 -0700 (PDT)


Howdy All!

I was at the West Pond today from 7:30-10:30am.  Things are moving and
shifting and the numbers of the species never seemed settled.  Nor did
the species.  Birds would appear [out of no where] and disappear as
quickly.  I had a single Buff-breasted and a White-rumped--both early
(7:30am).  Three Baird's were present at 7:30am.  By 8:30am there was
only one Baird's to be found.  After that it was off and on.  Where it
would disappear to, I do not know.  I started out with only 3
Pectorals, too.  They kept increasing in numbers until I left (14
total).  Below is a list of species with max counts.

Baird's Sandpiper (3)
Buff-breasted Sandpiper (1)
White-rumped Sandpiper (1)
Lesser Yellowlegs (4)
Spotted Sandpiper (1)
Semipalmated Sandpiper (8)
Least Sandpiper (23)
Pectoral Sandpiper (14)
Killdeer (8)
Semipalmated Plover (5)

Other birds seen/heard at the W. Pond:

Green Heron (1)
Belted Kingfisher (1)
White-eyed Vireo (1)
Song Sparrow (4)
Savannah Sparrow (3) (1 juv.)
Barn Swallow (6)
Purple Martin (3)
Rough-winged Swallow (1)
Chimney Swift (1)
N Flicker (1)
Pileated Woodpecker (1)
E Starling (100+)
Rock Dove (50)
Am Goldfinch (3)

There was also one aberrantly-plumaged Least Sandpiper with BLACK and
RED on the RIGHT side of it's head.  It had a red forehead, black
crown, ochre supercilium, black auriculars, whitish malar stripe, black
on the right side of the throat and black splotches near its right
shoulder.  The left side was an otherwise normal plumaged Least
Sandpiper.  An odd bird indeed!

-Greg Miller
(temporarily in far western Maryland--well, is Ohio in Garrett County?)
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