Ben-
    Paper Mill Road ( Baltimore County / Upper Loch Raven ) is an excellent
place to bird. If you bird it in March you will have thousands of Waterfowl
and other good birds too. Last March, I had Eurasian Widgeon and Greater
White-fronted Goeese there!! Soon there will be hundreds of ring-necked
ducks as well as many widgeon, wood ducks ( like you have never seen) etc.
Look for Rusty blackbirds soon. It's worth it to find the best paths.

I take it that the 1000 feet you are talking about ends up on the
southeastern corner of the Paper Mill Road body of water - where you can
look South and see the bridge ( looking North would have you looking over
towards the 'far shore')? If not you have to walk a little bit farther. As
to the far shore, well there is a way to get to it, not easy to find the
paths and not easy to describe but nevertheless here is what you need to do
if you want to arrive at the 'far shores'. If driving from the West on Paper
Mill road pass the shoulder where people park and make a left on the next
road; cross the small brige ( 100 feet) and park on the right. Walk north on
the road and make a left into the fire trail. that will take you back to the
water on the far shore. But finding your way can be a challenge and take
time. there are some old paths but they are over grown. the key is to walk
at least 1/3 -1/2 of a mile before leaving the fire trail. then cut over to
the left.

Forget about walking the areas where there are the winding streams unless
you want to look for a few song birds. I have never seen much and it can be
swampy.

How is the water level?

good birding, and keep us posted on what you see!


            Taylor McLean
            
            Baltimore County, MD


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ben Weinstein" <>
To: <>
Sent: Monday, February 21, 2005 6:07 PM
Subject: [MDOSPREY] Paper mill flats?


> I was just at the paper mill flats. This was my first time there and i
> have a few questions for people who are more familiar with the area.
> First, its not there is really a path correct? Just park on that little
> shoulder and walk towards the lake. Second, due to the deep braids of
> the streams its very difficult to get anywhere at all, am i missing a
> designated path? I've seen some people report that they found species in
> the fields, all i found was about 1000 feet until all my options were
> depleted. All the waterfowl was on the far shore, if this is always the
> case, is there any point of trying to bird without carrying in a scope,
> this would be considerably more difficult, since to get to the best
> position i had to leap across some streams, (not something i'm going to
> do while clutching a scope). All in all, not actually a bad hike.
> Totals:
> 10 common mergansers
> 4 hooded mergansers
> 3 black ducks
> 6 ring necked ducks
> thats all