Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2000 12:30:33 -0700 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Charlie Subject: Western MD breeders MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Hi folks, Things are reaching a crescendo in Savage River SF, while they are winding down just 60 miles (and what, 1000'of elevation?) at Green Ridge SF. I don't know about all of you, but prior to coming out here, I just sort of lumped everything west of Frederick as "out there." But I'm continually amazed at the differences between these 2 areas. We're running ArcView maps of all our observations, and seeing very consistent differences in species, and in their timing between the 2 forests. At Green Ridge, we haven't located a new nest in a week. Nearly all fledglings we encounter are in the older 2 of out 5 age categories. Worm-eating Warblers are silent, Cuckoos are done singing, though can still be heard calling. Ovenbirds and Red-eyed Vireos, of course, are still full of things to say. At Savage River, we found our 2nd Rose-breasted Grosbeak family of the season. Ceruleans fledged from one nest between Friday and today (yes, we were in the field today!) We have seen several Pewee and Acadian Flycatcher families in the last week, at every age. A trio of ACFLs were found being tended to on the ground this morning, having come out of the nest presumably withing an hour of being found. And to win the prestigious Sneaky Bastard award... Yesterday I saw a female Canada Warbler carrying food. None of the 5 of us have seen or heard a CAWA in any of our sites since May 15, yet we presumable missed a territory! We are going on the (kind to our egos) belief that certain birds who have no intra-specific competition have less reason to vocally defend territory. We have noticed previously that a few others (Winter Wren, Magnolia Warbler, Slate-colored Junco) that are on the edge of their range seem to sing less than other species. Indeed, I noted while in NY that the WIWRs (Danny excluded) and SCJUs are much more vocal than I've seen here... I saw a family of Grouse yesterday, near where I've had them previously. About 3/4 grown now, and they startle me more now, as they have begun the trick of taking off 1 at a time, in different directions, and waiting until I am in their midst before doing so. Enjoy your burgers and explosives. Charlie ===== **************************************** Charlie Muise, Naturalist Frostburg, Maryland, USA And it came to pass that in the hands of the ignorant, the words of the Bible were used to beat plowshares into swords - Alan Wilson Watts __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Kick off your party with Yahoo! Invites. http://invites.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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================