Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 21:35:29 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Stan Arnold Subject: Philadelphia Vireo & shorebirds, PRR North Tract MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks, Just back from a 3 1/2 week trip birding N. California and the Pacific Northwest. Top bird was on my first day of birding, a probable Salvin's Albatross (first N. Am. record, if accepted?) on a Debbie Shearwater pelagic out of Bodega Bay on 29 July. Back in MD, I visited the Patuxent Research Refuge North Tract (Anne Arundel Co.) this afternoon (Tue., 22 Aug), since Lake Allen has been drawn down, and is one of the few good spots in the area for shorebirds (btw, Lake Allen is generally only opened after about 4 p.m. due to nearby firing range activity, but should be open both days this weekend). However, the prize of the visit was a PHILADELPHIA VIREO, seen in a tree on the right side of the road, right over the second (small) culvert after passing the first triple culvert (with guard rails) when first arriving at Lake Allen. I watched the bird for several minutes, then zoomed back to the Visitor Contact Station to get Kurt Schwarz, who was manning the desk. We spent about 45 minutes trying to relocate the bird, and were successful, but the appearance was only brief this time, and Kurt never really got a good look. I'm hoping it's still there tomorrow. This is state bird #297 for me. Shorebirds and waders: Great Blue Heron--5 Great Egret--6 Little Blue Heron--3 immatures Green Heron--7 Killdeer--24 Greater Yellowlegs--1 Solitary Sandpiper--2 Least Sandpiper--13 Pectoral Sandpiper--12 Common Snipe--1 Stan Arnold Glen Burnie blackrail@earthlink.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================