[MDOsprey] BBC Trip to Blackwater NWR 11/20/99
Geoff Graff (ggraff@erols.com)
Sat, 20 Nov 1999 18:44:04 -0500
BBC had a birdwalk today at Blackwater NWR, 6 observers.
Birds seen or heard:
8 Great Blue Heron
4,262 Canada Goose
2,500+ Snow Goose (in distance at south end of the lake)
133 Mallard
2 Green-winged Teal
34 Northern Pintail
8 Northern Shoveler
6 Northern Ruddy
79 Ring-billed Gull
3 Herring Gull
9 Forster's Tern
3 Killdeer
2 Lesser Yellowleg
19 Turkey Vulture
1 Black Vulture (corner of Church Creek Rd. and Key Wallace Dr.)
4 Bald Eagle (2 adult and 2 imm.)
5 Northern Harrier
2 Red-shouldered Hawk (over field in front of Visitor Center)
3 Red-tailed Hawk
4 American Kestrel
2 Mourning Dove
2 Belted Kingfisher
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
1 Downy Woodpecker
3 American Crow
15 Fish Crow
1 Blue Jay
12 Carolina Chickadee
2 Tufted Titmouse
1 Brown Creeper
2 Carolina Wren
19 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
2 Golden-crowned Kinglet
1 Eastern Phoebe
5 Cedar Waxwing (bushes at Visitor Center)
16 American Robin
113 European Starling
1 Hermit Thrush
8 Eastern Bluebird (on wire along Key Wallace Dr.)
4 Northern Mockingbird
56 Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler
13 "Slate-colored" Junco
5 Song Sparrow
2 White-throated Sparrow
355 Red-winged Blackbird (along Rt 335, few feet N of Blackwater line
184 Common Grackle
11 American Goldfinch
47 species
Very slow day with warm weather. Seeing fewer birds than last year
trip. Both geese numbers are down. What happen to the flocks of Tundra
Swans and a Brown-headed Nuthatch.
Before going to Blackwater, at 9am, I stop by the Tarbutton Mill Rd. to
see the Sandhill Crane, and it was there. I only see this bird for 5
minutes as I have to get back to catch up with the groups at the Visitor
Center. Later, after the trip, went back to see the crane again at
1:45pm, but no crane. Spent 15 minutes checking the fields, the flocks
of geese and even behind the woods near the pond, nothing. Might have
move on to other location.
Kevin Graff
Baltimore, MD
ggraff@erols.com