A misty, cool Saturday May 28 at Chesapeake Bay Enivronmental Center in Grasonville offered a wonderful day of birding.  I ended up with 41 species – a huge day for me.  

The best birds were led by a GREAT HORNED OWL.  At one end of Knapp Lake, I saw a dark brown hawk-like bird pass close by, quickly and silently, just about head high.  I was confused – the brain could only come up with “hawk with missing head” and “no hawk I ever saw” and “what WAS that?” After puzzling a bit, I figured it must be an owl of some sort maybe a short eared owl.  It flew low, sort of harrier like, and it was early afternoon. What other non white owl comes out in daytime?  It didn’t seem right – but it was the best guess.   It passed by again, more distantly.  It really didn’t look like a short eared owl, so I was still puzzled. 

 

As we walked through the nearby stand of Loblolly Pine, we passed by an abandoned eagle nest, then found a box on a tree – owl box?  Squirrel box?  We found an owl pellet nearby, and finally saw a large nest in a pine – not as big as the eagle nest, but impressive anyway.  As one of us (JR) walked toward the nest tree, a brown bird fly very close by, through the pines.  It landed almost directly behind the crotch of a tall tree, 20-30 feet away. I could see the brown back, only.  It pulled its head to20the left, showing half it’s head – and peered directly at me out of one eye. I saw the “horn” and the yellow eye  and made the ID. After a long moment, it took a better look at me, pulling its head far to the left, taking me in with both eyes. It blinked once, turned it’s head and launched itself, silently flying away.  A life bird, at least for viewing – just magnificent.   I never thought I’d play peek a boo with a Great Horned Owl! 

 

For those interested, I believe it is relatively common to see Great Horned Owls here.  The area is called “Owl Alley” and it is crossed by “Pellet Path”.  The maps are free at the visitor’s center (but there is a small admission fee) 

 

Another good bird was a BALD EAGLE that was down on a kill, probably a rabbit, at the edge of Knapp lake.  Even better, there was an affectionate osprey pair on nest in the middle of the lake.  One of them flew up and around the Eagle, then stooped down on it, just once.  The Eagle took the kill elsewhere to enjoy.  The osprey must have gotten hungry and gone fishing – it returned not long after with a very large fish still flopping in it’s talons.  It flew “victory” laps around the nest and it’s mate peeped to it, then flew to a large pine.  I guess it was waiting for the fish to die, because it did bring the food to the m
ate, just a little while later.  

 

On another path, there were 5 WILD TURKEY just ahead of us.  They weren’t very skittish – they stared for awhile before slowly fading into the grasses.  

 

There was a good variety of Ducks at Knapp Lake.  A NORTHERN SHOVELER pair, many MALLARDS, a WOOD DUCK pair, which took a very leisurely tour around the lake wing-to-wing, perhaps shopping for a “house”, a pair of BLACK DUCK, and a half dozen GREEN WING TEAL – the latter life birds for me.  

 

Other very good birds were the BROWN HEADED NUTHATCH and a PINE WARBLER.  There were other little warbler-like birds high, high in the pine – but I did not have optics enough to ID those. Also lots of sparrows that didn’t look quite familiar – but my sparrow ID is dismal. 

 

Other than birds, we saw lots of rabbit, squirrel and had fairly close encounters with three white tail deer.  In the road, there were several turtle nests which had been dug up and the eggs eaten.  There were several similar holes, without any eggs.  What was curious was, at every hole, there was the scat of some small mammal.  There were also two piles of toilet paper on the trail – and next to each was, again, scat that appeared to be from the same small mammal. What gives with THAT?  Lastly, when walking down the road, we passed a lovely turtle – a painted turtle perhaps?  Yellow20ear marks and red stripes on her body.  We stopped at the blind for lunch and a long look at the birds.  When we left, we continued on our way, only to pass another turtle – same size, same gender… I actually think it was the same one!  I’m not at all sure I’m please to be out run by a turtle! 

 

Joanne

 

Joanne Howl, DVM

West River, MD