Little Patuxent Oxbow Lake Nature Preserve: From Big Pool Bluff, Jay Sheppard found 4 adult Sandhill Cranes standing in the mud along the east edge of the peninsula near the outlet channel at 11:40 a.m. The cranes then walked up onto the mudflats and were eating amongst some vegetation. Rusty brown stained cranes, all with bare red skin foreheads, necks and heads grayer than bodies, tertials and upper tail coverts laying over the tails, about the same size as the Great Blue Herons present nearby.  One was a much paler shade of pale orangish brown. After making several phone calls to birders we thought might be interested in an Anne Arundel County bird, Jay and I left Big Pool Bluff at approximately 11:55 a.m. We proceeded to the main entrance and headed for the site of the future platform. There were 2 cars parked at the entrance. Joe Hanfman was there and had seen the cranes, but lost sight of them. We found out later that John Dennehy had been in the other car. John reported that he observed the cranes fly away over the trees to the west. Jay and I plan to visit the Oxbow this evening to see if the cranes might return to overnight, but who knows to where they might have flown! Because we did not know at the time the cranes had flown, we spent another half hour or so checking out the entire lake without success.

Oxbow Lake, Anne Arundel, US-MD
Apr 10, 2012 11:40 AM - 11:55 AM
Protocol: Stationary
Comments: Conditions: 61°F, Cloudy, Wind: W at 20 mph, Humidity: 23%. 1 species

Sandhill Crane  4 

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)

Marcy Stutzman
Russett, MD


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