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
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