Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 12:07:33 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: leslie fisher Organization: cecil bird club Subject: Great Yard Morning- 3 Firsts!! MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi All: Three new firsts for the yard this AM all within 1/2 hr, ya gotta love it! I was having coffee and contemplating which of the garden/yard chores I would tackle first when an OSPREY came winging over, clutching in its` talons what looked like a big bunch of straw. It was headed towards North East. A particularly good bird for me since I am in a rural area surrounded by hay fields. Minutes later, what to my unbelieving eyes should appear but a lovely GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHER, landed in one of the wild cherries, foraged briefly and left. As I was heading to the shed, ready to start some work a burst of Grosbeak like song stopped me in my tracks. Not right for Rose-breasted.....Tracked it down....BLUE GROSBEAK!! I have had them in the fields in the vicintiy, but never a yard bird. Needed this for county this year too incidentally. Around 11AM I was taking a break and a male BALTIMORE ORIOLE swooped down to within 50` of me, foraging in the bare dirt where we just planted a meadow. It had been back and forth all morning feasting on tent caterpillars. Almost more excitement than I had on the road yesterday!! Leslie Fisher Cecil Co. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================