Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2000 11:13:57 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Harvey Mudd Subject: Brown-headed Nuthatch in Calvert county Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Marion and I made trips on Saturday and Sunday (Feb. 19 & 20) to the locality described by Tyler Bell at the end of Lloyd Bowen road to look for the Brown-headed Nuthatch he reported. Our experience may be useful to others interested in finding this bird. As one approaches from the north, within a few tenths of a mile from where Lloyd Bowen ends at the Patuxent River forested areas with many tall loblolly pines are present on both sides of the road. Further south, forest is largely absent for (perhaps) 200 yards. At the southern end of the road there is a barricade, a single house on the left (east), and at least two houses on the right (west). We originally proceeded to the southern end and looked around briefly. However, since there were only a few scattered pines in the immediate vicinity, we returned to the much more extensive wooded areas to the north and spent considerable time quite thoroughly combing through the forest on both sides with no luck on any nuthatch. Finally, returning to the southern end, we decided to do a better job of searching the few visible pines. North of the single house on the east side there is a small (perhaps 20 yards wide) marsh with singing red-wings, and north of that a small patch with several loblollies loaded with cones. In those trees we saw the first titmouse we had seen in the entire area, accompanied by several chickadees and, almost immediately, by a (? the) Brown-headed Nuthatch. A Red-breasted Nuthatch then appeared. We never saw more than one Brown-headed, so there may be only a few, or even a single one there. While we were watching, a pleasant woman emerged from the more northerly of the the two houses on the west and asked what we were doing. She was interested to hear about the nuthatch, which we managed to show her in Marion's binoculars. Because there are "no parking" signs on the barricade at the southern end, and along both sides of the road in the vicinity, we asked her where birders might park. She said it would be fine to park if they pull into the driveway of either of the two southernmost houses. There they will not block the road. The driveway of the house to the east might be best since that is not used during the winter. We gained the impression that the local residents will be entirely welcoming if their requests about parking are observed. Harvey ____________________________________ S. Harvey Mudd NIMH/DIRP/LMB Building 36, Room 1B-08 36 CONVENT DR MSC 4034 BETHESDA MD 20892-4034 tel: 301-496-0681; fax 301-402-0245 email: shm@codon.nih.gov ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================