Date:         Sun, 10 Dec 2000 22:06:51 -0500
Reply-To:     Bob Zaremba <bobzarem@PRODIGY.NET>
Sender:       Georgia Birders Online <GABO-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Bob Zaremba <bobzarem@PRODIGY.NET>
Organization: Prodigy Internet
Subject:      Piedmont Lakes, Sunday 12/10
Comments: To: GABO-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU, kevin_danchisen@compuserve.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

GABO:

We had a good day looking for ducks today with a total of 19 species of duck
in three piedmont lake locations.    Deb,  Tom Egan, Giff Beaton and I
started the day by heading to Lake Juliette, near Forsyth, GA.   Directions
to this location can be found in Birding Georgia (BG), site 22.   Although
visibility was limited due to the bad weather, we still started the day with
Greater Scaup (2), Lesser Scaup (40), Bufflehead (15), Red-breasted
Merganser (6), Ruddy Duck (4) and also had Horned Grebe (8) and Common Loon
(2).   Our next stop was at the Marsh Project in Rum Creek WMA (BG Site 22).
The habitat was great for marsh ducks and we added Wood Duck (4), Gadwall
(15), American Wigeon (10), American Black Duck (4), Mallard (20),
Blue-winged Teal(1), Northern Shoveler (25), Northern Pintail (3),
Green-winged Teal (30),  and
Ring-necked Duck (25).  We also had several Common Snipe, Winter Wrens,
Golden-crowned Kinglet and Hermit Thrush.  We left Forsyth with a total of
15 species of ducks.

Tom and I continued down to West Point Dam,  (directions are in site 11 of
Birding Georgia) and although the weather did not improve we were able to
add Canvasback (2), Redhead (6), Common Goldeneye (7) and had a good number
of previously seen species like Bufflehead (25), Horned Grebe (30), Common
Loon (18), Red-breasted Merganser (4) and Lesser Scaup (50).   Amazingly, we
hadn't seen a Hooded Merganser all day, so we decided to make a final stop
at Sweetwater Creek State Park to see what else we could add to the day's
list.

At Sweetwater Creek (site 12 of BG),  we FINALLY added two Hooded Mergansers
to bring the total species count up to 19.  A pretty good day for ducks in
the piedmont!   We also had good numbers of Redhead (28),  Bufflehead (35),
Ruddy Duck (20) and Common Loon (18).

It was a cold and wet day but we had a great time and saw an impressive
number of ducks today.   The best birds of the day were the Black Ducks and
Pintails at Rum Creek and the Goldeneyes at West Point Dam.   We ended up
with 71 species for the day, not too bad considering the rain!

Bob Zaremba
Marietta, GA