Surprised we didn't run into each other!  I saw the ducks, too, at the end of the dog training trail.  Your numbers and mine agree.  I wish you had been there to id a very small, drab warbler.

A few special sightings:

--on the Pennyfield Lock Road, on the edge of the small pond next to the white house on the right-hand side (just before getting to the parking lot), a Yellow-Crowned Night Heron with beautiful neck plumes.  It shared the pond with two male and one female hooded merganser.

--At McKee Beshers itself, about halfway down the access road where the creek really runs across the road and there's a relatively dry turn-around concrete pad, a male wild turkey flew across the creek.  Magnificent wing spread.

Looking for Horned Larks further west along River Road/Elmer School, I spotted four killdeer instead.

Nancy


----- Original Message ----
From: Paul Woodward <>
To: 
Sent: Monday, March 5, 2007 3:52:39 PM
Subject: [MDOSPREY] McKee-Beshers WMA (Mont Co) 3-03-07


Returned to McKee-Beshers WMA a little more than 2 weeks after I 
finished my winter counts.  Probably too late to determine the effect of the 
recent bad weather on winter populations, but I was discouraged by the lack 
of Winter Wrens which were quite common this winter.
      Checked the impoundments and then made a large loop along Hunting 
Quarter Rd,then through the fields to the towpath to Horsepen Hiker-Biker 
and back through the fields.  Area is extremely wet with high water levels 
in the impoundments.  The Potomac River was high, flowing rapidly with much 
debris.  I didn't think there would be many ducks there, but as is often the 
case I was wrong.  Several groups of ducks and geese were on the water 
facing into the current. I found an open spot and tried to identify them as 
they drifted past.  Some groups were also flying upriver. Landbirds were 
relatively scarce.
      Highlights were 11 American Wigeons, 8 Northern Pintails, 166 
Ring-necked Ducks (in the impoundments), 20 Lesser Scaup, 2 Bufflehead, 11 
Hooded Mergansers, 2 Red-breasted Mergansers, one Red-headed Woodpecker 
(heard), 100 Tree Swallows, one Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and 2 Eastern Towhees. 
Myrtle Warblers are still scarce- only had three.

Paul Woodward
Fairfax City, VA