Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2000 14:35:16 -0400 Reply-To: bott@erols.com Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Bonnie Ott Subject: Meadowbrook (Ho Co) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Kurt Schwarz led a field trip into meadowbrook this morning. Between the normal marshy condition and the rain we enjoyed a morning of wet birds (nothing better than to ID drenched sparrows!). 4 COMMON LOONS sailed over very low. A KESTREL was a delight as h= e perched for great looks through the scope. Swallows are increasing with TREES on every box. A PILEATED calling from the distance was new for the area. There were numerous singing BROWN THRASHERS. A number of SAVANNAHS were highly co-operative, feeding on the path. A few adult WHITE-CROWNS were undampened with their racing-stripe heads brilliant through the showers. A KINGFISHER dazzled us with a swoop over our heads as we tallied= up in the parking lot. One strange thing happened as I was thrashing below the group thr= ough the cattails. I found unopened boxes of "lager-beer", obviously stashed there by some minor kids for a future party. You would have thought I had found a new county record as quickly as some of the group moved in to confirm my sighting. We carted them out of the swamp and hid them in the grasses. As we ended the trip we returned to pick them up and they were divided up as "found booty". You never know what you find on a Howard County field trip! Bonnie Ott ========================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ========================================================================= ===========================================================================