Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2001 21:50:12 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Danny Bystrak Subject: BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING DUCK !!!!! MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit This evening, i went to sit on my deck at the edge of Jug Bay behind my house about 6:20p or so. Quickly i found 2 HARRIERS cruising the marsh (my first of the autumn was on the 11th), a few minutes later there were several Caspian Terns joining the Forsters', "rrrrrrralf"-ing as they flew around. Then a few minutes later, i saw a small bird floating with some wood ducks. My scope revealed it to be a PIED-BILLED GREBE (my first of the season). I was feeling pretty good about myself at that point. THEN, at about 6:38p, flying from the south (about .6 mi., from approximately Merkle WMA) i saw a bird that, in silhouette at first, i thought might be a cormorant or ibis. As it approached, i noticed (binoculars) that it had enormous white patches comprising the entire forewings and breaking only across the back. These patches stood out against the jet black primaries, secondaries and tail. The bird continued north, and i got it in my scope and desperately followed it, assuming this would be my last view. Well, didn't it decide to turn around and fly all the way back south again? By now i had the scope up to 60 power. About at Selby Landing, it turned and flew right at me, circled twice, descending the whole time, to finally land in the spadderdocks, out of view at 6:41p. The closest it got to me was about 1/4 mi. The entire time i could here a faint call that i wrote down as "too-ee too-WEE ti di" During this closer flight i could see a brownish-rufous neck and breast and pale legs contrasting with the desperately BLACK underparts. The head/face color and bill color were not to be seen, thanks to the rather obnoxious lighting, which was from the northwest, so i could only get color when it was more to the south. SO, i guess that makes up for watching the avocet fly past my house from afar the other day. danny bystrak bristol, AA Co. MD wiwr@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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================