Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2000 16:36:43 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Arlene Ripley Subject: backyard and Flag Ponds Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Over an inch of rain in the rain gauge this afternoon and the inclement weather brought 16 Purple Finches to the feeders today -- a record high for my yard. I've been rising early to catch dawnsong this week -- first light has all of the birds from the Tufted Titmice to the Eastern Bluebirds singing mightily. The song of the White-throated Sparrows and juncos will one morning be replaced with that of the Louisiana Waterthrush, the Yellow-throated Warbler and best of all the Wood Thrush. This spring I will keep a record of the progression of birds that I hear each morning. Flag Ponds yesterday had a few interesting sightings (I was in there to check the array traps for Spotted Salamanders). One Brown Creeper, two Pied-billed Grebes along with 12 Gadwalls, and two American Widgeons on Duncan's Pond. Ten Bonaparte's Gulls out on the very choppy water and when the sky cleared a bit, five Gannets diving far offshore. I spotted the first Osprey of the year and a single Tree Swallow. At 44 degrees none of the woodland birds were calling much, so the count was low. Saw a few Pine Warblers but no Fox Sparrows. Two River Otters were cavorting on the small pond (Todd's Pond) so I got to watch them until they swam around a corner and disappeared. I've had more River Otter sightings in the last twelve months than in the five years I've been volunteering at the park. ////// Arlene Ripley | || Calvert County, MD | 0 || aripley@nestbox.com | || http://www.nestbox.com || ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================