Had a couple of surprises today. First thing this morning,�on Tuesdays, I climb our 120 foot tall meteorological tower to change out collection glassware for our rainfall mercury collector. I usually bring binoculars unless the weather�is so heinous that I want to get the job�done and be back on the ground. Today was marginal as it was�quite windy up there. One gust almost knocked me over.�Our�Bald Eagle nest now has two eaglets. I could only see one of them today but you really need a scope. Turkey Vultures were soaring overhead headed north. Several Red-shoulders also moving north. Best bird was a Broad-winged Hawk that flew about 50 feet overhead. I could clearly see the black outlined wings.�

My second surprise was down at the dock at our education center. I had gone down to look for Bonaparte's Gulls which would be a SERC bird for me. Instead, I found two Northern Gannets flying back and forth on the Rhode River between Big Island (part of SERC property) and Camp Letts. I know there are tons of them on the Bay but that bird wasn't really on my radar to show up on the Rhode River!

Anyway, the full�eBird list is below.
�
Tyler Bell

California, Maryland 

Location:� � Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
Observation date:� � 4/7/09
Notes:� � tower climb at 0900, stream sampling until 1300
Number of species:� � 42

Canada Goose� � 5
Wood Duck� � 8
Gadwall� � 6
Mallard� � 2
Northern Gannet� � 2
Double-crested Cormorant� � 25
Great Blue Heron� � 2
Black Vulture� � 4
Turkey Vulture� � 15
Osprey� � 9
Bald Eagle� � 3
Red-shouldered Hawk� � 7
Broad-winged Hawk� � 1
Red-tailed Hawk� � 1
Herring Gull� � 5
Great Black-backed Gull� � 1
Forster's Tern� � 9
Red-bellied Woodpecker� � 3
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)� � 1
Pileated Woodpecker� � 1
Eastern Phoebe� � 1
Blue Jay� � 3
American Crow� � 2
Fish Crow� � 1
Northern Rough-winged Swallow� � 3
Carolina Chickadee� � 3
Tufted Titmouse� � 4
White-breasted Nuthatch� � 4
Eastern Bluebird� � 2
American Robin� � 2
Northern Mockingbird� � 1
European Starling� � 5
Pine Warbler� � 2
Chipping Sparrow� � 1
Swamp Sparrow� � 2
White-throated Sparrow� � 6
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)� � 2
Northern Cardinal� � 4
Red-winged Blackbird� � 12
Brown-headed Cowbird� � 2
House Finch� � 7
American Goldfinch� � 12

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)