Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 12:09:11 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "Kreiss, Elise (NCI)" Subject: Baltimore Drizzly Day Birds MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" On Saturday, my husband and I played host to a group of unprepossessing y= ard birds, including four or so young sparrows who looked just like Mom excep= t a little lighter, and a fuzzy starling with a mostly black bill, whose appearance was only exceeded in unattractiveness by his manners. The sparrows were cute, dependent little things. One would run up to a paren= t, leaning forward, wings fluttering, beak gaping appealingly. Mostly, the parent would respond with some food. But when the baby was ignored, it seemed perfectly capable of pecking at the ground by itself. My favorite was the baby who perched on a ground feeder with its back to all the seed= , begging; and when ignored, would angle perilously forward, trying to stre= tch its beak to whatever slight overflow had made it to the ground. The starling, who arrived unattended, actually ran to peck a male sparrow, swiftly turned to peck one of the babies, then got a second baby in its grasp and shook it before they separated. None of these birds flew off. Sunday was more exciting by a long shot. We walked out to Leakin Park, a= nd around noon were surprised to hear two barred owls close by, and see one = in flight from Windsor Mill Road. Later that afternoon, a flock of cedar waxwings descended on the mulberry trees hanging over our roof, and we go= t very close looks from our attic dormer window, in a darkened room as good= as a bird blind. Binoculars were superfluous, everything was as clear as could be. Sunday we also saw my first scarlet tanager ever. I give my husband credit for his instant understanding when I yelled from the kitch= en, "God, its got black wings!" Elise Baltimore City, MD ========================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ========================================================================= ===========================================================================