2.27.05
Hallo ya'll!

  I got a chance to walk around Lake Whetstone a bit today (for 30 minutes,
that's all mom would allow me).
  I was hoping to see something really different or strange, which didn't
happen. But I did get a little surprise. I saw two males and one female
Ruddy Ducks. I may have seen a female there once before, but it's not
common 'round here, so it was cool. Plus I saw a whole lot more Hooded
Mergensers than usual.

  Here's the list:
@ least 100 Canadas (less than normal)
70 Mallards
50 Hooded Mergensers
30 Ringed-billed Gulls
3 Ruddy Ducks
3 Great Blue Herons (all sleeping in a tree)
1 Black-crowned Night-Heron (seems to be changing from a juvenile to adult)
1 American Black Duck (looking very lonesome)

  I was expecting to get Ringed-necked Duck, but I didn't get any. And I'm
not good when it comes to judging size, so i don't know if there could have
been a Cackling Canada there. And the Mute Swan that's usually there was
around either...Maybe it was on the other side of the lake. i didn't get ot
walk around it much.
  Oh, and yesterday I got another lifer. Rough-legged Hawk on a wire on New
Hampshire Avenue near the Spencerville Seventh-day Adventist Church. It was
light colored, so it was probably a female, and it looked either really
sick or really cold. It was all fluffed up and whatnot with its head at an
odd angle.

Gema Crystal
Rockville, MD