Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 14:36:51 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Leslie Roslund Subject: Re: KILLER GRACKLE and other winter wonders MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Danny - What an ugly scene! But I can sure believe it. A few years ago, when we lived near Ashton in Montgomery County, the Common Grackles nested in our yard, and they were just terrible in the way that they would raid the nests of many other birds, eating eggs or young. They seemed to be worse than the crows back in that area. The winter wonder scenes you described are lots more fun. Earlier today I drove along roads bordering one large wooded area here in Talbot County and within about a mile counted over a dozen Towhees, along with several hundred White Throats, and numerous Juncoes. Lots of birds are getting killed along these roads too, for they flush up into the path of cars as they leave the very narrow bands of open ground that the plows have cleared. Other sightings: Yesterday afternoon a covey of about 12 Bob Whites were crossing one of the snow-covered fields along Route 33 about a mile west of Easton. One lone Killdeer was loitering in the cleared grounds of the Exxon station also along Route 33. Les Roslund Easton, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ================================================================================================================================================