Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 11:32:16 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Janet Millenson Subject: Yard birds - expected and unexpected MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit At last -- the female Hairy Woodpecker who usually shows up at the suet feeder by November put in her first appearance of the season yesterday. I was starting to worry! What instead appeared in November was a Fox Sparrow. It's been hanging around my yard with the other ground-feeding birds (white-throats, juncos, a pair of Song Sparrows) ever since. Checking my records, I found that the last time I had Fox Sparrow in the yard was March of 1993, and before that February and March of 1991. Noticed a couple of signs of (eventual) spring when I was shoveling my driveway the other day: some of the crows in the trees are starting to cuddle up in pairs, and a titmouse was singing "peter, peter." I expect the cardinals will start singing, too; I've heard them on sunny days in late January before. Janet Millenson Potomac, MD janet@twocrows.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey =======================================================================