Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 19:52:52 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: North American Birds - PART I - Sightings Request (part A) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit June 19, 2000 901 Crystal Spring Farm Rd. Annapolis, MD 21403 miliff@aol.com Dear Friends, Area Birders, and North American Birds Contributors, This is my standard reminder to send your SPRING sightings in to us at North American Birds as soon as possible. Your contributions are essential to being able to piece together a meaningful summary of the seasons sightings. Since this is a fairly long email it has been split into two parts. PART I includes: Spring 2000 (talks a bit about what was notable this season), Summer 2000 (a couple observations from this first month of summer), Personal Highlights (what I was doing this past spring) PART II provides more general onformation on North American Birds, including: an introduction to North American Birds (North American Birds: What it is & History) and its recent changes (North American Birds: Recent Changes). Finally, and perhaps most importantly, is a section on the reporting network here (The Local Staff) and how you can help. ****************************************************************************** ************** I would like to apologize for the inevitable cross-postings which will occur. This mailing has been sent to Valley Birds, The Richmond Area Listserv, VA-BIRDS and MDOsprey, as well as personal email accounts. I cannot constantly monitor the changing subscription lists on all of these excellent listservs, and want to ensure that I reach all active birders in the Region. If you are unfamiliar with North American Birds (formerly Field Notes), please read on - information on who we are and what the magazine includes is below. If not, please read on as well - we NEED your reports! I hope everyone will read the section: "The Local Staff". It details exactly what we hope for in our reports and how you can help. If you bird in the Appalachian Region (i.e. Maryland's western three counties and Virginia west of the Blue Ridge Mountains) please note that your sightings should no longer go to George Hall, who has retired. The new Appalachian Regional Editor is: Robert Leberman HC64, Box 453 Rector, PA 15677 (724) 593-7521 (no email address) ****************************************************************************** ************** The Spring reporting season (1 Mar-31 May) for A.B.A.'s North American Birds (formerly A.B.A. Field Notes) has drawn to a close, so I urge anyone who has not yet reported their sightings to us, the Voice of the Naturalist, or email groups such as Valley Birds, the Richmond area Listserv, or MDOsprey to please send in your sightings for inclusion in my next Season Report. Please send them no later than 5 July. As always, the data are easiest to process if they come in continuously through the season. Late reports are always welcomed as well -- better late than never!. Email obviously has the opportunity to vastly improve the efficiency and speed with which I communicate with observers in the Region, and will also save much time, paper, and expenditure on the mailings. I ask anyone who wishes NOT to receive this mailing in the future on email, to respond. Also, if you read this mailing on one of the above mentioned listservs, or somewhere else, and did not receive a personal copy in your e-mailbox, please let me know so I can update my address list. I apologize again for any cross-postings. If you received this letter via "snail mail" and have an email address that I may use in the future, please drop me a note and say so! The SUMMER SEASON runs June 1-July 31. Data entry will be MUCH easier if reports are received continuously rather than all at the end. Please take good notes on your sightings and let us know of them. Photocopied field cards are OK, computerized sightings are ideal, but even a quick note or email will suffice as long as we get the information. As I've said before and will say again, I am entirely dependant on YOUR reports to write a good column. .I would also like to make sure all Field Notes subscribers are aware of the two excellent email listserv groups covering the Region. MDOsprey discusses birds and birding in Maryland and is run by listowner Norm Saunders. Subscribe and get more information by visiting . VA- BIRDS is the Virginia analogue covering birds and birding in Virginia specifically. It was recently set up in September 1999 but now has a broad subscription base of birders across Virginia and beyond. To subscribe send a message to and include "Sub VA-BIRD" in the body of the message. Alternatively check out . I encourage anyone interested in birding in either (or both) or these two Regions to consider a subscription. Also of interest to some will be the BUGS listserv, which deals with insect (especially butterflies, moths, and dragonflies) from Maryland-Virginia-Delaware. Check out for more information. Be sure to check out the M.O.S. website (www.mdbirds.org) if you carry an interest in birding in Maryland and the D.C. area.. In addition to a wealth of information about the Maryland Ornithological Society (M.O.S.) and its chapters, the website also carries information on the birding sites in Maryland, the Maryland/D.C. Records Committee, and even photos of recent Maryland rarities (including Kelp Gull, the possible Slaty-backed Gull, Arctic Tern, White-faced Ibis, and Fork-tailed Flycatcher). Recently it has been linked to a new shorebird page that details the local conditions and recent reports from shorebirding locations in Maryland. Thanks to Fran Saunders for doing such a great job maintaining this site! SPRING 2000 As with a number of recent years, this spring had a notable number of early arrivals. A Barn Swallow was in Saint Mary's County, MD, in early March. A Whip-poor-will also was heard in Saint Mary's on a record early date of 9 March. A number of other examples at the very early end of migration exhibit a continuing trend of very early arrivals. The March arrivals can be attributed to strong southerlies in the early part of the month, so any additional records from this period will be of interest to try to elucidate exactly what species can be brought on these conditions and how early they might arrive. Northern Gannets penetrated far up the Chesapeake Bay this year, and all reports will be of interest. This event has been occurring every few years. As with in past years, the gannets appeared to be limited to the seaward sides of the major bridges, which seemed to act as a barrier to their exploration of the Bay. I also ask any watermen to give their insight on what these birds may be feeding on, as the fish stocks certainly are governing these invasions, when they occur, and There seemed to be an early indication of a pending Dickcissel invasion, based on a few May reports in the Region and beyond. If you saw any Dickcissels this season please report them, so we have a full picture of the summer's invasion, possibly the best ever. March, April and May also saw an influx of Red Crossbills from locations where they were not reported in the winter. This is of great interest to understanding the nature of these invasions, so if you saw any crossbills please let us know. Of premier importance will be to note the kind of evergreens the birds were associated with, and of course, whether any tape recordings were made of the vocalizations. Below is a preliminary list of rarity reports from the season. Some do not have any documentation and WILL NOT be included unless we receive some. Others are already well-documented but more documentation would be helpful. If you saw ANY of these birds and could provide even brief notes on the identification, habits, etc. it would be much appreciated. Photos would be ideal. Some of the fancier rarities reported this season included: Pacific Loon, South River, Anne Arundel Co., 19-22 Mar Eared Grebe, Beaverdam Res., Loudoun, VA, 29 Mar-4 Apr Fulvous Whistling-Duck, Chincoteague NWR, Accomack Co., VA,, 28-30 Mar Dark-bellied Brent Goose (Eurasian form of Brant), Cape Charles, Northampton Co., VA, 22 Mar Garganey, Ft. McNair, VA, 4 Mar White-faced Ibis, immature, E.A. Vaughn W.M.A., Worcester Co., MD, 25-27 May White-faced Ibis, adult, E.A. Vaughn W.M.A., Worcester Co., MD, 28 May Swallow-tailed Kite, Ft. Smallwood, Anne Arundel Co., 18 May Mississippi Kites at a number of locations 30 Apr through the end of the season Swallow-tailed Kite, Tuckahoe S.P., Caroline Co., 7 Apr Swallow-tailed Kite, False Cape S.P., VA, 2 Apr Kelp Gull, continued at Sandgates, Saint Mary's Co., MD, intermittently through season dark morph Red-tailed Hawk, Ft. Smallwood, Anne Arundel Co., MD, 6 Apr Lark Sparrow, Annapolis, Anne Arundel Co., MD, lingered through 28 Mar Harris's Sparrow, Sykesville, Carroll Co., MD, lingered through 1 May Le Conte's Sparrow, lingered at E.A. Vaughn W.M.A., Worcester Co., through at least 29 Apr ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================