Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2000 11:19:38 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Jim Stasz Subject: Connecticut Warblers: some suggestions on finding them MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks! We are near the peak for migration of Connecticut Warblers. On Sunday 9/2 4 I foundone at Morgan Run Environmental Area, Carroll County near the parkin g area at the end of Jim Bowers Rd. The habitat is a stream valley, former ly a field, but now reverting to woodland. The canopy is not closed and about 50% of the sky is visible. There are a fair number of scattered Multiflora R ose in the understory. Viney species [Tearthumb, Wild Grape, Virginia Creeper ] form umbrellas over a variety of shrubs and small trees. Walking is easy because some of the field aspect remains. There is a very high foliage he ight diversity, with patches of shaded and sunny understory. The same area produced [in the lower vegetation] Common Yellowthroat, Northern Cardinal , Carolina Wren, White-eyed Vireo, Gray Catbird, American Robin, and Swains on's Thrush. I have been successful in the past few years in locating Connect icut Warbler in this kind of habitat: a mixed woodland/field edge. It is not densely vegetated and uniform in structure like many hayfields and does n ot have a closed canopy like many larger woodlands. The ground is not soggy wet. When running the banding station at St. Timothy's in Baltimore Connecticu t Warblers were most often netted in the transition tall weedy edge between the cornfields and the forest. We also caught more Connecticuts in the cornf ield than in the forest. Another habitat that seems to be productive are the waist deep forbs [goldenrod, joe-pye-weed, asters, and especially RAGWEED!] with scattered shrubs "meadows" in powerline cuts through woodlands. One again it is the sort of taller weedy growth that has small open patches or open lanes. I must also admit to using tape recordings to assit in stirring up the activity. I carry 2 pocket sized tape players [el cheapos from K-Mart]. One has and endless loop of Eastern Screech-Owl and the other a loop of scold ing Black-capped Chickadees. Quite often the Scolding Chickadees is plenty t o bring in the curious and a bit of the Screech Owl starts them scolding. Connecticut Warblers, if they respond, generally fly off the ground and alight on a shaded branch at eye level or a bit lower and walk back and forth. The scold note of Connecticut Warbler reminds me of the "whit" of an Empidonax flycatcher. It is quite unlike any other warbler or sparrow ch ip note [to digress a bit, the chip of an Orange-crowned Warbler is very cl ose to that of Field Sparrow]. Remember, Connecticuts tend to feed by walking on the ground. They need pathways and cover. Soggy wet meadows and marshes are wrong; deep forest is wrong. Try a stroll through the weedy edges between cornfields and woods or along a power line. Good Birding! Jim Jim Stasz North Beach MD jlstasz@aol.com ======================================================================== To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================== ==========================================================================