Late this morning and early this afternoon, I made three quick stops at
various points in Piscataway Park in southern Prince George’s County.
Since I was short on time, I made some “order of magnitude” estimates
of the waterfowl in these locations.
My first stop was at Farmington Landing on Piscataway Creek, at the
end of Wharf Road, off of Farmington Road (11:00-11:30 am). There I
saw the following species:
34 Tundra Swan
40 Canada Goose
23 Canvasback
200+ Lesser Scaup
100 Greater Scaup
16 Ring-necked Duck
2 Bufflehead
6 Ruddy Duck
1 Lesser Black-backed Gull
many Ring-billed Gull
I am virtually certain that I saw both species of scaup. The Lessers
were spead out all over the creek, while the Greaters were together in
a group near the far bank. Viewed at 40x through the scope, I could
see the greenish, not-as-pointy heads and the very white sides of the
males (especially noticeable).
The next stop was at the fishing pier at the National Colonial Farm, at
the end of Bryan Point Road (11:45-12:00 noon). Not much doing
there: 1 Herring Gull and 7 Redheads flying down river.
My final stop was at the Accokeek Creek section of the park (12:00
noon-1:00 pm). There were a large number of waterfowl visible from
the boardwalk:
many Canada Goose
many Mallard
8 American Black Duck
2 Gadwall
4 American Wigeon
8 Redhead
many Ring-necked Duck
6 Bufflehead
16 Common Merganser (probably more)
6 Hooded Merganser (all females)
1 Greater Black-backed Gull
many Ring-billed Gull
In the same area, I also saw 1 Belted Kingfisher, about a dozen Red-
winged Blackbirds, and the usual cardinals, bluebirds, and sparrows.
On the way down to Piscataway, I saw a Red-shouldered Hawk fly
over the Beltway (near the exit for Branch Avenue) and land in a tree
alongside the road.
Some nice additions to my nascent county and year lists.
Good birding to all,
Elaine Hendricks
Greenbelt, MD (PG County)
--
_______________________________________________
Get your free Verizonmail at www.verizonmail.com |