[MDOsprey] 10/5 trip to Horsehead & Eastern Neck NWR

Charlie Muise (cmmbirds@yahoo.com)
Wed, 6 Oct 1999 16:29:30 -0700 (PDT) 

Hello

As it turned out, I spent the day in Maryland yesterday. 
Horsehead hosted the normal nice views of captive waterfowl
(I find it good practice to watch them for a while before
the "real" ones arrive later in fall) as well as a few wild
birds:  many Mallards, 6 Black Duck, 2 Blue-winged Teal, 2
Gadwall, and a female Pintail.  I didn't locate the one
Green-winged Teal that staff told me was present.  Had many
raptors all day, including a very entertaining show:

A juv SSHA landed in a dead tree, having just failed to
catch a flicker.  3 Blue Jays then landed in a thick bush
nearby.  One at a time, over a ten minute period, they
toook turns flying out, up, and past the sharpie, _just_
out of reach.  The poor thing fell for the bait every time,
diving out and after the teaser, and just missing, then
returning to roost screaming, only to do it again, and
again.  I felt sorry for all this loss of energy, but it
was funny.

Horsehead had nothing notablein the way of waterfowl, but
did have 4 terns:  one common, several Forster's, 3
Caspian, and a couple dozen Royal.  It was nice to have
Forster's and Common side by side for comparison, as well
as the other 2.  at my level, its still needed.

Lots of warblers, but just a few species:  Pine, Palm,
Maggie, Myrtle, Common Yellowthroat and Nashville (great
look at 2 beauties gleaning and hawking very actively in an
opening in the woods along the entrance road).

Had at least 7 eagles for the day, and 3 Merlins.  And can
you say Tree Swallow?  about 300 at Horsehead, and maybe
500 at Eastern Neck.  At one point I stopped 3 feet from a
Myrtle bush with at least 200 TRSW's in it.  I could hear
them through the car window.  I didn't dare open it with
som many birds flitting about madly!  I had to drive away
very slowly, lest they end up in my grille.

Good birding!

Charlie

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Charlie Muise, Naturalist
Jug Bay Wetlands sanctuary
Next to the Beautiful Chesapeake Bay
Maryland, USA
cmmbirds@yahoo.com
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