Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2000 08:59:14 -0400 Reply-To: mebalestri@erols.com Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marcia Balestri Organization: Avalon Consulting Group, Inc. Subject: Yellow-billed Cuckoo MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854"; x-mac-creator="4D4F5353" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I had an interesting and unusual (for me) experience yesterday. I took a break from working (home office) to grab a cup of tea and lo and behold, outside my kitchen window on the railing of my deck was a Yellow-billed Cuckoo! Yep, right out in the open, just hanging out, looking around, alert, and amazing. It is the best view I have ever had of one of these elusive guys. As I was admiring its subtle color, russet wings, and whit tipped tail feathers up close, it did what birds do on my deck. It pooped. Then it pooped again and again. My first thought was Oh No, it has hit a window or is sick. Then it teetered forward, pooped again-oh no, it really is sick. But no! All of a sudden, a white "bubble" started appearing that got bigger and bigger (kind of like white bubble gum beinng blown up!) and plopped out on the deck. An egg! This cuckoo had just dumped its egg -- out in the open. It promptly flew back to its usual hiding place not to be seen (or heard) for the rest of the day. I guess I am curious if this is a common occurrence at the end of breeding season (or any other time) -- trying to get rid of that egg and no nest around to do it in. Or maybe it got chase away from a nearby nest and just had to go, so to speak. Any thoughts? ========================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ========================================================================== ==========================================================================