Date: Tue, 9 May 2000 07:10:25 -0700 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Greg Miller Subject: Nightwatch in my yard MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Howdy All! Like some other lucky folks who live in the THRUSH FLYWAY, I decided to do some night birding from the deck last night (5/8). Today, I can tell you, I do not live anywhere within earshot of this alleged THRUSH FLYWAY. I was out from 9:00pm to 12:30am. The evening was warm and the winds were mild at 9:00pm. Within the first 10 minutes of my watch, I was happy to hear the distance cadence of a lone Chuck-wills-widow, cheering on the advent of darkness. I waited another hour and a half for bird #2: a Yellow-billed Cuckoo that burst into its clucking rhythms right above me. I never saw the bird and do not know if it was simply a flyover, or whether it was in the giant poplar tree next to house and just decided to be vocal. Either way, it only called once. At 11pm, a single Wood Thrush passed over. Woopee. Yeah, right. The wind started to pick up and only increased with the passing hours. At 12:30am, I called it quits with 3 individuals of 3 species. Maybe it'll be better on another night, but I'm not too excited about staying out late just anytime soon with such "exciting" results. BTW, I found out my squirrel-proof feeders are being regularly raided at night by some marauding masked mammals (yeah, racoons). Though I wasn't happy they were eating the seeds I put out for birds, I was thoroughly entertained during the time I was outside. I had to chuckle at their persistent antics in pursuit of such a small reward... -Greg Miller Hollywood, MD __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send instant messages & get email alerts with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com/ ========================== =============================================== To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ========================================================================= ===========================================================================