Date: Fri, 5 May 2000 08:49:37 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: rick Subject: big week trip Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Since this is not about Maryland birds I will cough up the short version. We did not get 500 birds in seven days, done in by weather and very poor migration in Texas (only two eastern warblers at High Island!). Still, we ended up in the low 400s I think. The final list is on Marshall's computer, which is with him in Montana, chasing Boreal owls. We left Texas after three days with about 260 birds, not bad. Highlights included Whooping Crane from the plane (at less than 100 feet), White-tailed Hawk, Hook-billed Kite, and White-collared Seedeathers. In Arizona we swept the hummers, including White-eared, Magnificent, and Lucifer's. Also had N. Goshawk, Olive Warbler, and many of the local specialties. The best Cal birds were the Black Rails in the wet meadows in the foothills of the Sierras. Weird place for them. Some of those spots are not much bigger than a typical kitcher and the birds are resident. Impressions: 500 in 7 days will require a non-birding pilot. Bryan Blazie did yeoman work, but the pilot HAS to sleep regularly. Three days of roadside tacos are devastating on the digestive system, unless you are a pup like Marshall and Bryan. Pups can eat anything. Logistics are a bear. With a flexible schedule, which we had, it is impossible to reserve cars and motels and at many of the small airports we dropped into, they are't available on short notice. We spent too much time tracking down transport and changing stops. Texas is a hell of a lot more birder friendly than it was 20 years ago. Fort Huachuca, Miller Canyon, and the Nueces River preserve are wonderful birding, but from 3000 feet southeast Arizona looks just plain godawful desolate. Most Texas restaurants have small signs on the door reminding patrons that concealed handguns are not permitted, Unnerving. It halps a lot to have help on the ground. Former Maryland stars Ed Boyd in Arizona and John Trochet in California were invaluable. They say hi to all and we say thanks to them. You will always meet someone you know at High Island in April. We plan to try again next spring, although we are considering an alternative: 400 birds in five days, all in Texas. Rick Never take a solemn oath. People think you mean it. -- Norman Douglas Rick Blom rblom@blazie.com 4318 Cowan Place Belcamp, Maryland 21017 (410)575-6086 Editor: BWD Skimmer (www.birdwatchersdigest.com) ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================