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Re: some Triadelphia CBC birds

From:

Andy Martin

Reply-To:

Andy Martin

Date:

Sat, 2 Jan 2010 21:13:30 -0500

I teamed up with Marshall H this morning to help with lower Triadelphia 
Reservoir/Hawlings River area. Best birds - a Double-crested Cormorant 
on one of the buoy's above Brighton Dam and a Common Loon in the 
Patuxent River just below the dam. A little further downstream we had a 
male Common Goldeneye and at least 3 or 4 Bald Eagles always seemed to 
be in view above the reservoir. Also had 5 Chipping Sparrows along Bordy 
Rd. Overall, bird numbers were quite low with about 46 species found.

The cold wind blowing directly down reservoir was bracing.

Andy Martin
Gaithersburg



Rick Sussman wrote:
> Hi Gail, Barry and all,
>  Well, you had some of the birds we dipped on. Alli and I (and a friend and her visiting aunt) covered Blue Mash, the old Oaks landfill (drive-through only, while still dark. A lovely sunrise seen from the top of the landfill though...), and parts of Gregg Rd and Riggs Rd. We netted a mere 35 species, feeling lucky at that. Our best finds were probably a nice female N. Harrier, very close, at Blue Mash, a flyover adult Bald Eagle carrying something that looked like a skull, a bagel, or perhaps a turtle, though probably none of the above. Whatever it was, it was an odd looking thing for an eagle to be carrying. In a small wetland patch on old Gregg Rd. we found 3 Wilson's Snipe, a nice find in this weather. One flew off as I walked around the patch, then I found another actively feeding which we watched for awhile, then another flew out. This has been a reliable spot for many years for this species at this time of year, and we were happy with our find.
>  
> We had good numbers of N. Flickers, and bluebirds, 3 Hermit Thrushes, fair numbers of Robins, juncos and Mockingbirds, but very low numbers of the other few species of sparrows we managed to find. Not even a Field Sparrow at Blue Mash! We did find about half a dozen Savannahs at the landfill though. No owls, but we did find fairly fresh whitewash and some pellets at Blue Mash, probably from E. Screech Owl.  Not a towhee to be found anywhere today, but the pond at Blue Mash did have 6 Ring-necked Ducks, our only waterfowl other than C. geese.
>  
> Big misses include nuthatch, creeper, sapsucker, White-crowned , Field, and Swamp Sparrows (also Fox and A. Tree). 
>  
> A bit breezy in our area, which likley kept the sparrows hunkered down (actually it was windy to downright howling this afternoon!).
>
> Rick Sussman
> Woodbine,MD
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gail Mackiernan <>
> To: 
> Sent: Sat, Jan 2, 2010 3:23 pm
> Subject: [MDOSPREY] some Triadelphia CBC birds
>
>
> Hi all --
> (Still thawing out) -- Barry and I did upper NW Branch Park (where the
> rolley Museum has been moved) without very high expectations due to the
> xposed habitat in this wind and cold. However things proved better than
> xpected, and in sheltered hedgerows and areas on the eastern edge of the
> ark (where there are some backyard feeders) we saw good numbers of the
> xpected passerines as well as an *unexpected* 6 FOX SPARROWS, 3 CHIPPING
> PARROWS, and an unprecedented (for us) 10 or more TOWHEES. A near-by
> etland area yielded 2 SWAMP SPARROWS -- have never missed this species
> ere. The expected White-throats, Song, Field and Junco made it a good
> parrow day.
> However we dipped 100% on owls of any species, first time for this, but the
> earby ICC construction is probably disturbing their regular roost trees. No
> aterfowl other than Canada Geese, everything was frozen solid.
> Feeders were active  and ours and a neighbor's had very large numbers of the
> ommon species.
> Gail Mackiernan and Barry Cooper
> olesville, MD
>
>