Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2000 15:36:40 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: Northern Shrike in Anne Arundel County MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hello all, Last Thursday (13 Jan) I was able to swing by the US Naval Academy Dairy Farm, which has recently had reports of Rough-legged Hawk and Loggerhead Shrike, both good Anne Arundel County birds. Access is restricted, but I found I could survey the area for those (usually) conspicuous species from the surrounding roads. I did not find the Rough-legged or Loggerhead shrikes, but I did find an adult Northern Shrike. It was fairly close and provided good looks at all the diagnostic field marks. The Academy Dairy Farm is near Millersville, MD. Reach it from Rte. 32 by taking the Burns Crossing exit, go left at the stop sign at the end of the ramp and 0.5 mi to a left on Annapolis Rd.. Go right on Dairy Farm Rd. in 0.2 mi. The shrike was hunting from the fenceline paralleling the dirt road that is perpendicular to Dairy Farm Rd.. In the NE corner of the bend in that dirt road (it parallels Dairy Farm Rd. then strikes out across the field) is an old Beech tree that the bird sat up in at one point. I got some photos that should be diagnostic but if anyone can improve on those that would be good. Also in the area is at least on Red-tailed Hawk with a dark throat and extensive dark belly band. This morph, I believe, pertains to the subspecies _albeiticola_, something I am noticing fairly regularly in MD in winter since I saw my first one last January. I did not post this earlier because there were some questions about access to the farm. It seems that looking from the road, which has wide shoulders and a good view, seems the best option. Please be alert also for the other birds possibly present (Rough-legged Hawk, Loggerhead Shrike) and keep us all posted. Best, Marshall Iliff miliff@aol.com ============ Marshall J. Iliff Annapolis, MD miliff@aol.com ============= ================================================================= To unsubscribe send a message to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ==========================================================================================================================================