Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2000 12:19:23 -0500 Reply-To: bott@erols.com Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Bonnie Ott Subject: Ho Co highlights MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit This morning's beginning "Birding by Ear" was a great success. A large but manageable crowd of mostly newcomers and novices joined some of our regulars as we walked the Gwynn Acres path. The morning was simply heavenly and timing perfect. Everything wa= s singing up a storm but without the flood of migrants to cunfuse the beginners. Highlight of the trip was a small flock of RUSTY BLACKBURDS. One of the rustys walked along a log and fed on little goodies for a lenghty period of time, he was only about 10-15 feet away. Everyone was able to view him through a scope, it was the best look at a rusty that I have ever had! There were 6 GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS that stayed up in the tip to= ps of the trees. A PHOEBE that announced his presence once but never gave us a peek. A huge number and variety of woodpeckers. A WB NUTHATCH seen with a dead leaf going into a natural cavity. A CROW on the nest and WOOD DUCKS whistling off into the woods. A SONG SPARROW that sang his heart out for us at the beginning of the trail and was still going strong as we finished. Lots of bloodroot in bloom and a carpet of spring beauties everyw= here. A few cut-leaved toothwort and trout lily and may-apples starting. Bonnie Ott Ellicott city , Howard County P.S. Last night at wilde lake- no pintails or cormorants. The red= head was there along with my first osprey of the year. ========================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ========================================================================= ===========================================================================