On a scheduled field trip to Horsehead, aka
 "Chesapeake Environmental Center", I looked
 north across the northeast cove towards Rt 50
 and found, among some canvasbacks along the far
 (north) shoreline in front of the reeds, about
 a dozen American Wigeon - except that one of them
 had a red head! It wasn't easy to pick out at that
 distance among all the red-headed male canvasbacks
 and a male redhead, but the five of us did get
 identifiable looks, including the yellow forehead.
 One of the birders present said that it had been
 seen the two previous winters here, and that this
 made the third consecutive winter it was seen.
 A more complete trip report will follow with
 species and numbers seen for the trip.
 We subsequently made the trek to Ocean City and
 checked both at Shantytown (now new upscale condo's)
 and at the Jetty for the Murre, but were frustruated,
 as were the other birders there. We did scrounge up
 two male Harlequin Ducks at the fishing pier and
 a couple of Gannets, but no Eiders or identifiable
 alcids, although a possible alcid sp. was spotted
 out beyond and right of the green buoy, and seen
 fleetingly and very poorly by several of the people
 present - only by scope. As the wind picked up between
 4 and 5 pm, the chill set in and one by one we all
 gave up and returned to our cars, apparently Murre-less.
 (My first guess at the identity of the possible alcid sp
  would very tentatively and speculatively be razorbill,
  but I can't even be certain I was seeing an alcid.)
 Pete Webb
 Baltimore
 pete_webb - at - juno.com




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