Message:

[

Previous   Next

]

By Topic:

[

Previous   Next

]

Subject:

Starting my Maryland and Kent County year lists: 3 & 4 Jan '07

From:

Walter Ellison

Reply-To:

Walter Ellison

Date:

Thu, 4 Jan 2007 17:13:00 -0500

Hi Everybody,

As long as we continue to compile the Hanover, NH - Norwich, VT CBC on 
New Years Day with the second as a long travel day, we shan't be able to 
commence our Maryland year list until the third (except for sleepy geese 
honking on the creek on the second). My first bird of the year was a 
crow mobbing the fake horned owl atop the Hanover Inn in cold misty rain.

Here in Kent County I have been able to take a couple of walks and get 
my first look at Great Oak Pond for the year. Yesterday's walk (3 Jan) 
produced 12 year-birds highlighted by Belted Kingfisher, Winter Wren, 
Swamp Sparrow, and two Fox Sparrows. Two Brown Creepers were also nice 
to see, but I  had that one first this year up North.

Today (4 Jan) I added Sharp-shinned Hawk, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, and 
Eastern Towhee. There were fifteen Common Mergansers on Mill Creek 
(tributary of Worton Creek), flushed by one of the four Bald Eagles in 
the area. I watched the two adult eagles mating across the creek, more 
eaglets on the way. I also had three Red-tailed Hawks including a 
distinctive bird with a liberal spatter of pure white spots on its 
mantle and upper-wing coverts I had not seen in awhile.

This afternoon (around 3:00 PM) Great Oak Pond held a spectacular flock 
of 9000 Snow Geese, too overwhelming to make finding the hoped-for 
Ross's Goose a reality. Also present on the pond were 8 Tundra Swans, 3 
Green-winged Teal, 10 Lesser Scaup, 7 Bufflehead, and 30 Ruddy Ducks.

Good birding,

Walter Ellison

23460 Clarissa Rd
Chestertown, MD 21620

phone: 410-778-9568

e-mail: rossgull(AT)baybroadband.net

"Nothing is as easy as you would like it to be, and nothing is as hard 
as you might fear"