Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2000 21:32:17 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Steve Huy Subject: Snipe Hunt MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I came home today to flush 39 snipe from near my mailbox. This brought back memories of my first snipe hunt as a boyscout. Seems that this was supposed to be some kind of joke, although I'm not sure who the joke was on. I lead the other guys out to a marshy area nearby and we started shining our lights around looking for eye shine. We had a good time; finding frogs and toads and other critters. We even scared up a woodcock at one point. We never did find a snipe, much less catch one. I wasn't sure we'd be able to catch one or if we would get in trouble if we did; after all I believe there are certain seasons when you're allowed to hunt them. It wasn't until several years later that I learned we were supposed to have been on a wild goose chase and that snipe weren't supposed to be real. I guess I also recall that very few of the scouts, including the senior members, had the Ornithology merit badge. Anyone looking for snipe for Frederick county can find them in the area of Sumantown and Carrol Boyer Roads near Middletown. There is a marshy field that attracts quite a few. This area also had a good covey of quail last summer. Harriers have been frequent during migration and grasshopper sparrows, field sparrows and meadow larks were also plentiful here last summer. A pair of kestrels is in my nest box (the one up the hill, the box in the yard only has starlings) and there is a great horned owl nesting in an old Red tail nest off Poffenberger Road near the bridge. I have both a mocking bird and a starling that do a good imitation of short-eared owl barks. I wonder if they learned them nearby. I've been trying to teach the mocker to say "how are you" but no luck yet. Steve Huy Middletown, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================