WINTERING EASTERN SHORE BIRDS

     While watching wintering birds at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge on Maryland's Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, through the refuge's live camera and our computer screen, from January to early March, I was impressed with three things.  One is that Blackwater, situated along the middle of the bay, represents the vast, somewhat inaccessible, marshes of the Eastern Shore.  The lovely scenery of the refuge is enhanced by beautiful winter sunsets.  And the larger birds visible on the computer screen are icons of the Chesapeake. 

     Blackwater Refuge has several brackish rivers and channels.  And it is much vegetated by pretty loblolly pine woods, and large, lovely marshes of phragmites and tall grasses, the latter two species being amber in winter.  

     The marshes are particularly attractive in winter sunlight.  The phragmites swaying in unison in strong wind appear to be trying to tug out of the damp soil they are rooted in.  And the soft and fluffy-looking seed plumes blow like banners in the wind.  

     Wintering iconic birds at Blackwater include many each of Canada geese, snow geese at times, tundra swans, northern pintail ducks, bufflehead ducks and ring-billed gulls, and lesser numbers of bald eagles, great blue herons, northern harriers and red-winged blackbirds.  Flocks of geese, swans and pintails rest on the rivers, channels, and the shallow, human-made impoundments, but feed on grain and seeds in nearby fields and marshes.  And I can hear the calling of the geese, swans and red-wings on the computer. 

     Some of the many wintering and stately bald eagles can be seen perched on loblolly pines among the marshes.  They catch live fish, and scavenge dead fish and other animals in the refuge, as elsewhere.  And some pairs of eagles nest in Blackwater.

     Northern harriers and male red-winged blackbirds are spotted in the marshes in winter and into early spring.  The harriers cruise slowly and low over the marshes in search of rice rats and mice to eat.  The red-wings sing from phragmites and grass stalks late in winter and into early spring.

     Sunny late afternoons and evenings create lovely climaxes of sunny, winter days at Blackwater.  Sunsets are my favorite times to visit Blackwater by computer in winter.  The already beautiful waters, marshes and loblolly woods are more attractive and appealing than before.  The sky is yellow, orange or red, and cumulus cloud edges are tinged those colors.  Several flocks of calling ducks, geese and swans in flight are silhouetted black before the glowing, western sky.  And the beauties of the colorful clouds and the flying, silhouetted waterfowl are reflected attractively in the still water, doubling their beauties.        Phragmites and tall grasses, all swaying gently in the wind, glow beige-orange in the low-slanting sunlight of winter sunsets.  The feathery-looking seed plumes of phragmites are most attractive when sunlight shines through them from behind.  

     Blackwater Refuge, in winter, has several of the iconic beauties of Maryland's Eastern Shore.  And some of them can be enjoyed by using the refuge's live camera and computer screens. 
                

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