Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 11:09:00 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "Walter L. Meserve Jr." Subject: yard birds MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 The past few days have brought a combination of coming and going bird= = s in my yard. In between downpours, my deck feeder hosted 2 Purple Finches= = for 2 days. 4 Fox Sparrows visited yesterday along with at least 2 Towhees. In the woods, 2 Black and White Warblers, 2 Palm Warblers in their bright yellow feathers, more Ruby Crowned Kinglets and Bluegray Gnatcatchers than I can count (they flit around too much!). I think I heard a Blueheaded Vireo, but darned it I could find it. Bluebirds have been checking out the the 3 boxes but have yet to decide on any. Sharpshinned, Redtailed, Redshouldered and Broadwing Hawk were seen yesterday. An Osprey flew over a few days ago. And the strangest sighting was reported by a neighbor across the stre= = et in the Fallsmont development. He reported a female Wild Turkey strutting= = through his back yard, which happens to be smack dab in the middle of the= = development. So close..... Yesterday, while I was mulching, I kept hearing a highpitched chatter. I would duck around the corner to peek into my lilac bush, sure= = a hummer was hiding in there. As I sat on the deck, I still kept hearing i= = t. I'd walk to the railing, look around and still not see anything. I sat down, and happened to glance over at what I thought was a dead leaf hangi= = ng on the bottom railing. It was a BAT!! I've never seen one sitting still= = . = And I must have walked within inches of it atleast 5 times. It's brown hair almost looked golden in the sunlight. My son took pictures of it, a= = nd I'm hoping the photos do it justice. Barb Meserve Fallston, MD skiptech@compuserve.com ========================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ========================================================================= ===========================================================================