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Re: Harlequin & Cave - Yes

From:

David Powell

Reply-To:

Maryland Birds & Birding

Date:

Sat, 4 Dec 2004 19:30:51 -0500

The Cave Swallow was seen around :30-1100, when I visited Wades Point.

Dave Powell

Germantown, MD

----- Original Message -----
From: Patricia Valdata <>
To: <>
Sent: Friday, December 03, 2004 8:19 PM
Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Harlequin & Cave - Yes


> I drove down to Sandgates today in hopes of seeing Shrimpy and if I had
time
> to drive to the Wades Point Inn. It was a very nice day for a drive, and I
> am pleased to say
> it started with an adult bald eagle landing in a bare field south of
> Elkton. I stopped the car to take
> a look. Bald eagles look very big when they are in a field, just standing
(like
> the penguin on the telly). I looked at the eagle who looked back at me
> totally unconcerned.
> I took this sighting to be a good omen and happily drove south, seeing
> red-tailed hawks
> and snow geese and lots of turkey and black vultures. At the Seabreeze
Inn,
> I had
> the place almost to myself (except for all those people in the bar having
> liquid lunch).
> I saw several dozen gulls and cormorants but apparently not as many as are
> normally there
> at 1:00 in the afternoon. One dark-backed gull was snoozing on the pier
and
> when it stood up I saw
> the grayish-greenish-yellowish legs--looked just like the picture on the
> wall. It stood
> for about ten minutes (I guess it wakes up hard, like I do), preened a
> little bit, and then flew
> off just as my very tasty and hot burger arrived. I was SO glad I hadn't
> arrived 15 minutes later
> than I did. I couldn't find it again when I left the restaurant.
>
> FYI, it's 2-1/2 hours from Sandgates to the Wades Point Inn. It was after
> 4:00 by the time I arrived
> and I was worried that I'd lose the light before spotting the duck, if it
> was even there.
> The lovely woman behind the desk gave me their birdlist, brochure, and two
> postcards
> while I signed the visitor's sheet. She told me where the harlequin duck
> had been seen an hour earlier.
> I walked outside and toward the pier she had told me about. At first the
> choppy water looked
> totally empty but then I saw a single duck. The sun was in my eyes as I
> walked but when I was
> abeam of the duck, I could see it was indeed the harlequin. Why it was all
> alone in
> one-foot chop and strong winds I have no idea. Just around the point was a
> sheltered
> cove full of buffleheads. Maybe being a northern duck it thought the
> weather was balmy;
> maybe the buffleheads were less than welcoming?
>
> The cave swallows were, apparently, gone with the wind.
>
> 365 round-trip miles and 7-1/2 hours later, I'm home and tired but happy.
>
>
> --Pat
>
> Pat Valdata, Elkton, MD | 
> "The natural function of the wing is to soar upwards
> and carry that which is heavy up to the place where dwells the race of
gods.
> More than any other thing that pertains to the body
> it partakes of the nature of the divine." --Plato