Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2000 10:50:45 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Todd Day Subject: Dead Ruddy Ducks Comments: To: VA-BIRD@list.audubon.org, gfenwick@abcbirds.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hello all... While Kurt Gaskill and I were birding the Colonial Beach, VA area on Saturday, we discovered fourteen dead Ruddy Ducks, and one dead scaup. A= ll of these birds were in a stretch of shoreline about 100 feet long. Due t= o the shape and privacy of the marina, as well as the time of day, we were unable to search further for them. They were found in the harbor that dumps into the Potomac, at the tip of = land at the end of Colonial Beach. The ducks were caught along the rocks that= the peninsula we were standing on was built on, or bolstered with. The ducks= all seemed to be pretty much in the same state of decay. Mostly they looked recently dead. A couple appeared to be a bit bloated, but otherwise they looked pretty recent. They were in the water with no easy access to exam= ine one, so I have no idea if they were shot. My hunch is that they were not shot. Rather they died from ingesting some toxin. But, that is a pure guess. What I am wondering is whether or not 15 dead ducks along 100 feet of shoreline is significant, or is this nothing that is going to raise conce= rn among appropriate authorities. Also, would this be something I should re= port to VA Dept. of Game and Inland Fisheries, or is this VA Fish and Game's jurisdiction? If anyone has any information regarding this, or has seen = any dead Ruddy Ducks, feel free to let me know. Thanks... Todd Day Jeffersonton, VA BlkVulture@aol.com ========================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ========================================================================= ===========================================================================