Hello all.

Happy new year to everyone.  In between rain showers, I did some lunch 
break birding along the waterline at Fort Smallwood and found some great first-
of-year birds:

Highlights:

Common Loon: 1  Fairly close to shore, in Rock Creek
Pied-billed Grebe: 1  On the pond
Double-crested Cormorant: 4
Great Blue Heron: 2
Mute Swan: 3
Canada Goose: 30+
Mallard: 26 On the pond
American Black Duck: 1  On the pond, an unexpected visitor
Lesser Scaup: 300+  On the Patapsco and Rock Creek, in close
Scaup sp: 150+  Further out
Bufflehead: 40
Common Goldeneye: 8
Long-tailed Duck: 12  Near 'White Rocks'
Bald Eagle: 1  1st year bird, not one of our 'usual' Eagles
Red-tailed Hawk: 1  In a tree above the pond path
Ring-billed Gull: 18
Great Black-backed Gull: 2

Matt Grey
Pasadena