Howdy folks!  Monday and Tuesday were spent mostly still digging and moving snow, but of course I did some bird-watching at our house.  Monday I shoveled etc for 6 hours and bird watched for 2.5 hours, and Tuesday I shoveled for 5 hours (spent from 12-4:30 pm on our roof clearing it off, to prepare for today's storm) and birdwatched for only 90 minutes.

I had 49 species here Monday and 41 on Tuesday.  I probably missed quite a few Tuesday because I did not spend as much time watching.  The 5 day cumulative total (Feb 5-9) was 58 species.  Highlights from Feb 8-9 include a Kestrel (I think it must resort to birds as its only food source at this point), a Killdeer (seen here daily so far), Tree, Fox, Swamp, and White-crowned Sparrows, the continuing Baltimore Oriole, and oddest of all, my first for 2010 Wilson's Snipe!  I was first alerted to the Snipe's presence by its call, heard late (~5pm) on Monday afternoon.  The snipe circled around our house and pastures two times, and obviously wanted to land here but found no where to do so, and then it continued out toward the river.

I think many are weary of this snow by now (people and wildlife!).  This morning whenever the wind gusts, it is a total white-out - WOW!  We have been lucky so far, but I am very nervous we may lose power here due to the wind today.  The edgy feeling reminds me of winters I spent in Montana in the mid-80s (the ground was snow-covered from Nov to some time in late April to early May).  I have been anxious to get over to Schoolhouse Pond to look for the Black-headed Gull reported  there (seen several days now).  Cabin fever is setting in, a feeling I recall from those long winters in the 80's.  Schoolhouse Pond is only about 15 minutes away from here, but I haven't had a chance to look yet.  I am guessing the gull will stick around - where would any bird go in this mess?  By the way, the number of geese around here is down to a few hundred - where did they go?  Obviously access to food is gone.  Do they go farther south, or over to the Bay's mainstem?  Anyone seen large flocks of geese on the move?

The best part of this morning was seeing the oriole eating dried mango in the driving snow!

Cheers!
Jeff Shenot
Croom Md