[MDOsprey] Conowingo Report

rick (rblom@blazie.com)
Wed, 22 Dec 1999 08:22:32 -0500


        Let's be honest here folks: Conowingo is as much fun as you can
have, legally, using binoculars. Spent several hours yesterday at the dam.
No great rarities, but pleasures all the same. Gull numbers were high, but
the ratio of Ring-billeds was back up and there are nearly unprecedented
numbers of Bonis around this winter. Highlights:

Double-crested Cormorant        6 (very late)
LAUGHING GULL                   1
Ring-billed Gull                10,000 (half in the last hour of daylight)
LESSER BLACK-BACKED             2 (adults)
Herring Gull                    2,000
Great Black-backed Gull         250
Peregrine Falcon                1
Oddities                        several

        The peregrine is very irregular and if it were not for the eagle
watchers I would not have realized that it was still putting in an
occasional appearance.
        I had one Ring-billed Gull in full juvenile plumage: all-black
bill, no gray feathers on the back, heavily barred chest, sides, vent, and
upper tail coverts.
        I now have proof (sort of) that there is a connection between
Conowingo and Back River sewage plant. I had an adult Bonaparte's Gull that
had a full hood. Such a bird has been at Back River the past several
winters and I assume it is on its way there now.
        Waterfowl are in very low numbers so far this year.

Rick

There are two kinds of statistics, the kind you look up and the kind you
make up. -- Rex Stout

Rick Blom
rblom@blazie.com
4318 Cowan Place
Belcamp, Maryland 21017
(410)575-6086