Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 12:26:25 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Bea Nicholls Subject: Carroll County Harris' Sparrow MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Thursday, April 20, 2000: I was at the Carroll County property/home, whe= re the Harris's sparrow has been seen, from 7:45 - 8:45 AM and from 10 AM to Noon seeing 24 species, but no Harris' sparrow. (My maiden name is Harris= , so I really do think he could have been more cooperative. . .) Friday, April 21st: Managed to haul myself out of bed at 4:30 AM and arri= ved at the Carroll County property at 6:40 AM. A gray, damp morning, but had = an hour with just a few sprinkles. At 7:40, just as I was preparing to leave= , I spotted the Harris' on a next door neighbor's front yard feeder - good vi= ew with my 10X binocular, and then even had time to set up my scope and view= him for about 30 - 60 seconds. (He's in beautiful breeding plumage.) Driving = home in a deluge, I saw nothing but sunshine. (Call property owners at 410-795-3117 to arrange a visit. This gentleman told me he has had over 1= 00 birders visit to see this sparrow. Can we do something to let him know th= is is appreciated?) On Thursday, after leaving the futile search for the Harris' sparrow, I w= ent further out Rt. 70 and paid a brief visit to the Audrey Carroll Wildlife Preserve. (Thank you, Wilbur.) What a lovely property to bird! Among the = more interesting species seen were brown thrasher, hermit thrush, swamp sparro= w (I think), purple martins (They have gourds up for nest boxes.), and a fox peering through the undergrowth at me. All in all, a lovely day. Bea Nicholls Middle River / Essex, MD birderbea@aol.com ========================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ========================================================================= ===========================================================================