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FW: Cambridge Waterfront

From:

Les Roslund

Reply-To:

Les Roslund

Date:

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 09:41:38 -0500

The following note is forwarded on behalf of Talbot Bird Club Member Steve
Ford.
 
 
Les Roslund
Talbot County
Easton MD 21601
-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Ford (Choptank) [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Monday, January 21, 2008 8:49 AM
To: Les Roslund
Subject: Cambridge Waterfront


Hello Everyone,
On Sunday morning with an abbreviated birding window I decided to ride to
Cambridge and see how many Canvasbacks were at Oakley Street.
Inside the harbor between the little bridge on Maryland Avenue and the
harbor entrance were 26 Lesser Scaup and 2 Canvasbacks.  When I arrived at
the parking lot at the harbor entrance there were no ducks or sea gulls
sitting in the parking lot.  Looking west i noticed the sky was filled with
ducks  so I drove to Oakley Street to see what was going on .  When I
arrived there was an adult and sub adult Bald Eagle dive bombing the ducks
that were still sitting outside and flying through the flock that was in the
air.  I didnt see them catch anything but they scattered the ducks from
Oakley Street all the way to the end just next to the boat house inside the
cove at the far western end of the waterfront road.  There were a few small
groups that got back into the area just west of Oakley Street but the
majority of the birds were all the way up to the boat house at the end of
the waterfront road.
I drove to the end and the best way to view the ducks is to back into one of
the private driveways and look out to the river.  By this time, probably 15
minutes, the majority of the Canvasbacks were settled in front of me.  I
estimated the flock of Cans in front of me at 1100.
After no more birds were flying in, I decided to ride back towards Oakley
Street and count the remainder of the flock that  noticed there when I was
there before.  On my way I decided to stop in on Belvedere Street which was
a new stop for me.  Its one street west of Oakley.  When I arrived, the
remainder fo the Cans were right in front of the end of this road not
Oakley.  I counted 250.  For the next hour I was joined by another fellow
from Cambridge that had some corn and we watched as every one of the Cans
from the boat house at the far end of the road flew back to the spot right
in front of us. A couple of the flocks had 200 in them but mostly they were
25-50 at a time.  It was quite a spectacle if you love watching ducks coming
in.  Final tally by the time I left at 10:40 was 1400 Canvasbacks, 5
Redheads, 2 Greater Scaup, 15 Lesser Scaup plus the ones from inside the
harbor, 65 American Widgeon and a few Mallards.  Outside in between waves
were a scattering of Surf Scoters, Buffleheads and Common Goldeneye.
It was lucky timing to see such a spectacle.  As usual, its the best place
to go to see any number of diving ducks close up.
 
Steve Ford
 
Steve Ford     
Choptank Transport,  Inc.
800-568-2240 x 135
410-673-9877  fax
HYPERLINK
"mailto:[log in to unmask]"
www.choptanktransport.com
 


 


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