Hi Folks,
Leo Weigant and I spent some time making the rounds in Anne Arundel County
yesterday (Sat., 1/31), but the land birding was very slow. Our best finds
for the day were 16 GREEN-WINGED TEAL at Patapsco Pond #11 on Nursery Rd., 2
drake REDHEADs at Fort Armistead (actually in Baltimore City waters), and 4
GREAT CORMORANTs on the Thomas Point Light House, with a couple dozen
Double-cresteds (seeing conditions were fairly good to make these
observations).
Today, I decided to head out solo to Prince Georges Co. Neither Schoolhouse
Pond nor either of the two Depot ponds offered anything enticing, so I
headed over to Patuxent River Park at Jug Bay. Here I found a couple
hundred Herring Gulls standing on the ice, and a noticeably paler brown gull
among them. After watching this bird for a while, it obligingly lifted it's
wings, and I could see the overall palor of the wings and the dark outer
webs of a THAYER'S GULL. Perhaps this is the same bird that was at
Schoolhouse the day before. The next stop was at Selby's Landing where
there were 14 COMMON MERGANSERs visible from the boat launch. Here I picked
up the Critical Area Driving Tour, and drove to Merkle across the Mataponi.
With the buildings of Merkle in sight, I took the loop that skirts the
river, and here I found a flotilla of a couple thousand Canada Geese in the
river. I scanned and found three blue-phased SNOW GEESE (1 adult and 2
imm), certainly the same birds that were seen at Merkle last fall, and I was
also able to pick out a single CACKLING GOOSE. While I was observing, the
birds flushed out to the middle of the river. As I passed the fields
driving from the river to the Visitor Center, I heard a HORNED LARK, and
then saw this very pale bird land (only my second ever Horned Lark in PG).
About the same time a flock of about a dozen AM. PIPITs flew across the
road.
I checked out Milltown Landing road, where the most interesting birds were
two FOX SPARROWs at the corner with Croom Rd., and then in the primary
hedgerow and adjacent field across from the first barn were four SAVANNAH
SPARROWs and four WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWs (1 adult and 3 imm).
From there, I decided to retrace my steps in the hopes of chancing upon the
Golden Eagle that has been cruising the area. No luck. I ended up back at
Schoolhouse Pond, and here I briefly chatted with Diane Ford, and then
walked around the boardwalk where Mikey Lutmerding was scoping and
photographing an interesting Herring Gull. Mikey pointed out to me the
first cycle GLAUCOUS GULL in the middle of the flock of several hundred
gulls resting on the ice. After the gull flew out into the open at the far
end of the pond we both went over to get a lot of photos of this bird. I
also came across the third cycle LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL that Mikey had
found earlier, but he also found a first cycle bird that I did not see.
Wow, there are so many interesting birds around this winter.
Stan Arnold
Ferndale (AA Co.)
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