Hi everyone,

My wife and I spent the morning at Turkey Point in Cecil County.  We got
there at about 7:30 AM, and were met by several deer.  As we walked down the
trail, we saw either a Cooper's or Sharp-shinned hawk fly out of the woods,
nearly at ground level.  It landed on a stump about 100 feet from us and
immediately flew back into the woods before we could aim the cameras or get
a good visual ID.  We also saw a Gray Catbird and several male and female
cardinals.

At the hawk watch site we saw a Great Crested Flycatcher and several
Parulas.  Pat and Leslie (with the cutest little Lab puppy) arrived a few
minutes after we did for the official hawk watch count.  I'll defer the
actual counts to them, but we saw several Sharpies, Cooper's, a Red-Tailed
Hawk, a Northern Harrier, and a couple of adult Bald Eagles that gave us a
great view as they slowly circled overhead in a group of Turkey Vultures.  A
group from the Kent County club arrived at about 10:30, and they saw a
Peregrine Falcon at the actual Point.

And of course we saw large numbers of Blue Jays forming big flocks and
flying back and forth to the water and then back to the land.  The Sharpies
would dive bomb them and make them scatter with a loud set of squawks.

We left around 12:30.  We had a great time, and we thank Pat and Leslie for
letting us sit with them and for helping us learn more about raptor
identification and behavior.

I got a few photos with my digital camera.  Scanned film photos, if they
came out well, will be up in a week or so.  I have some scanned photos from
last week that I hope to post tomorrow.

The blue jays:  http://monroe.20m.com/bluejay.htm

Eagles:  http://monroe.20m.com/eagle.htm

Turkey Vultures:  http://monroe.20m.com/hawk.htm

Monroe and Joyce Harden
Havre de Grace, MD