Re: 1/30/99 Mid-winter Count @ APG (long)
Bob Baughan (wilmabob@sentex.net)
Fri, 5 Feb 1999 16:42:33 -0500
----------Hi Dave:
Sounds like you guys had a good count, and a few adventures to boot!! At
4.10$/species, an expensive outing. You`re not trying to catch up to Greg
Miller are you?
Leslie Fisher
( temporarily from Canada )
> From: David W. Webb <webb@netfox.net>
> To: MDOsprey discussion group <MDOsprey@ARI.Net>
> Cc: Ziolkowski, Dave <dziolkow@indiana.edu>; Wheeler, Jean
<wheele@jhmi.edu>; Watson-Whitmyre, Marcia <mww@copland.udel.edu>;
Robertson, Randy <robertsn@netgsi.com>; Procell, Sue
<saprocel@CBDCOM-EMH1.APGEA.ARMY.MIL>; Kovach, Russ
<rkovac1@tiger.towson.edu>; Kirkwood, Dennis <kirkwoodd@netfox.net>;
Johnson, Mark (home) <piranga@bellatlantic.net>; Fry, Larry & Fry
<jlfry@netfox.net>; Congersky, Tom <jnjtcon@erols.com>; Boling, Harold
<owlman@erols.com>; Bowers, Debbie <dbowers@harford.campuscwix.net>
> Subject: 1/30/99 Mid-winter Count @ APG (long)
> Date: Thursday, February 04, 1999 2:20 AM
>
> Folks,
>
> Here’s a summary of the mid-winter count that Sue Procell and I did
> on Aberdeen Proving Ground (Harford County) this past Saturday.
>
> 1 RED-THROATED LOON (Chesapeake Bay near Abbey Point)
> 1 Pied-billed Grebe
> 4 Great Blue Heron
> 11 Tundra Swan
> 577 Canada Goose
> 151 American Black Duck
> 203 Mallard
> 4 Northern Pintail
> 3 Green-winged Teal
> 2 Gadwall
> 2 American Wigeon
> 4 Canvasback
> 195 REDHEAD (with scaup raft at mouth of Bush River)
> 459 Ring-necked Duck
> 1000 Greater Scaup
> 6703 Lesser Scaup
> 2050 scaup sp.
> 5 Common Goldeneye
> 1 Bufflehead
> 8 Hooded Merganser
> 2 Common Merganser
> 110 Red-breasted Merganser
> 4440 RUDDY DUCK (Bush River near Sod Run)
> 5 Black Vulture
> 74 Turkey Vulture
> 25 Bald Eagle
> 7 Northern Harrier
> 3 Cooper’s Hawk
> 9 Red-tailed Hawk
> 1 American Kestrel
> 7 Killdeer
> 7 COMMON SNIPE (in flooded impact area, near Towner Cove)
> 4 AMERICAN WOODCOCK (displaying at dawn, near Briar Point)
> 16 Bonaparte’s Gull
> 421 Ring-billed Gull
> 3 Great Black-backed Gull
> 5 Rock Dove
> 24 Mourning Dove
> 9 Eastern Screech-Owl
> 6 Great Horned Owl
> 1 Barred Owl
> 1 NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL (calling at dawn, near Briar Point)
> 1 Belted Kingfisher
> 4 Red-bellied Woodpecker
> 1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
> 6 Downy Woodpecker
> 3 Hairy Woodpecker
> 37 Northern Flicker
> 14 Blue Jay
> 7 American Crow
> 13 Carolina Chickadee
> 8 Tufted Titmouse
> 5 White-breasted Nuthatch
> 1 Brown Creeper
> 3 Carolina Wren
> 1 Winter Wren
> 2 MARSH WREN (in marshes of Romney Creek)
> 4 Golden-crowned Kinglet
> 7 Eastern Bluebird
> 1 Hermit Thrush
> 1 American Robin
> 1 GRAY CATBIRD (near Old Baltimore)
> 9 Northern Mockingbird
> 57 European Starling
> 2 Yellow-rumped Warbler
> 12 Northern Cardinal
> 7 Eastern Towhee
> 3 American Tree Sparrow
> 5 Savannah Sparrow
> 23 Song Sparrow
> 6 Swamp Sparrow
> 54 White-throated Sparrow
> 68 Dark-eyed Junco
> 1350 Red-winged Blackbird
> 3278 Common Grackle
> 3450 Brown-headed Cowbird
> 300000 blackbird sp.
> 4 American Goldfinch
> 76 TOTAL SPECIES
>
> Missing: House Finch & House Sparrow. Hooray!
>
> (If you only care about the count data, stop reading here)
>
> ***************************************************************
>
> This was one of the best MWCs in my 10 years of counting on post.
> Nearly every stop we made turned up something worthwhile, whether
> it was the rafts of bay ducks on the Bush River or secretive Marsh
> Wrens among the phragmites at Romney Creek.
>
> Birding on an Army proving ground is wonderful – there are large
> tracts of undeveloped land, and on weekends there is very little test
> activity. Given this backdrop, there are usually lots of
> birds, both in number and diversity.
>
> Birding on an Army proving ground can also be quite adventurous – I
> submit to you these pieces of evidence.
>
> 1. Sue and I had just completed our first owling stop at about 1:30
> AM, when we noticed a vehicle driving in our direction. When the
> vehicle's driver saw our back-up lights come on, he turned on the
> emergency lights. Yes, it was an MP (military police). As the
> MP pulled up behind us, we shut off our engines and opened our
> doors to get out and walk towards him. To put it bluntly, he did
> not want us to do this and shouted for us to remain in our vehicles.
> A second MP pulled up and they proceeded to interrogate us.
> Fortunately, we carry authorization letters with us for such
> occasions. Within a minute you’d have thought the four of us were
> old college buddies, smiling and joking about. All the while our
> only Barred Owl of the count continued to hoot in the background,
> but I don't think the MPs gave a rat’s ass about the owl.
>
> 2. At about 8:00 AM, I noticed a loud noise from the rear of my
> truck driving to our next stop. I had only registered this
> pickup the day before, and so was not quite used to all the sounds
> it normally makes. I assumed the noise was from either the rugged
> road we were on, or perhaps the vibrations from the tape player
> which I’d left in the bed. When we finally reached our destination,
> we saw a large raft of bay ducks and I forgot all intentions of
> checking the source of this noise. After an hour spent looking at
> the ducks, we had to quickly return to Sue’s vehicle so that she
> could attend her daughter’s first confession. But the noise from
> the back of the truck continued and then I noticed the truck
> beginning to fishtail. I stopped, got out, and saw that the rear
> tire was chopped up and that we had been riding on the rim for
> probably the last half mile. Oh $*%@!!! I’m so new to this
> vehicle I didn’t even know where the jack and lug wrench are
> stored. Luckily, a fuel delivery truck passed by and saw us
> broken down. The driver happened to own the same model pickup and
> so within 15 minutes he had us back on the road. I drove Sue back
> to her car, and she eventually made it to the church, but not
> before her daughter had already made her confession.
>
> 3. At about 4:00 PM we were in Sue’s car (to save wear on my spare
> tire). We were driving on a stretch of dirt road used by Army test
> vehicles. I did not call in for clearance to be here because from
> past experience I had learned that weekend tests conducted on this
> road are completed by early afternoon. (Oh, also, I had left the
> range radio back in my truck – oops!) Sue parked the car right in
> the middle of the road, and we proceeded to scan a nearby field for
> sparrows. I was suddenly shocked to hear a distant rumbling, then
> looked across a large open field to see a cloud of dust moving along.
> It was a tank -- headed our way! I yelled for Sue to get her car
> completely off the road immediately. She did, and shortly afterwards
> the tank roared past us at high speed. All we could do was grin
> and wave at the tank as it sped by, cover our optics from the
> trailing dust storm, and pray that the driver did not radio to the
> MPs about two trespassers on the test course. Lest we spend a night
> in the brig, Sue and I got the hell off that dirt road as quick as
> her car could go. (Just for a little extra sense of danger we
> included a one-minute stop along the way to check a pond full of
> dabbling ducks. Hey, that’s how we found our only wigeons and
> Gadwalls).
>
> 4. We finished the day at sunset watching a massive flight of
> blackbirds swarm into the marshes of Mosquito Creek for their
> evening roost. Despite a brisk wind gusting at about 20-25 knots,
> we did so from atop a nearby 100-foot tall range-control tower.
> This poor old tower is not used anymore by the Army – they know
> better. It’s a steel-framed structure with eight flights of wooden
> steps and a dilapidated observation booth at the summit. While
> ascending the last two flights you hear the wood creak with each
> step. Honestly, I would not be surprised to hear that it collapses
> tomorrow. Ah, but the view at sundown is breathtaking, and the
> vision of a string of blackbirds extending for miles is one not
> soon forgotten.
>
> P.S.: According to my tire dealer, the cost per species for this
> count came to $4.10.
>
> Dave Webb
> webb@netfox.net
> Havre de Grace, MD
> Harford Bird Club
>