Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2000 13:57:46 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: David Mozurkewich Subject: Rock Creek Today, Oct 9 In-Reply-To: <200010091257.IAA20537@umd5.umd.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Rock Creek was its usual wonderful self today. Warblers are still moving with at least 8 species. Black-throated Green dominated the action everywhere with at least 50 individuals. Also present were 10-15 Black-throated Blue, 5 Myrtle, 5 Palm (1 gray, 4 yellow), 4 Yellowthroat, 2 Nashville, 1 or 2 Parula and 2 Magnolia. Other migrants included 2 Blue-headed Vireos, about 20 Ruby-crowned Kinglets and 2 Golden-crowns. For me the highlight had to be two beautiful Lincoln's Sparrows, a personal high count. For the fall. In the district. Of birds not previously found by someone else. But we can't call it a flock since one was at the Maintenance Yard and one behind the Nature Center. The usual sparrows were also present with 25 Song, 20 Chipping, 5 White-throated, 1 Field and 1 Swamp. These numbers represent the birds I claim I saw and are probably a poor estimate of what others saw or of what was actually there. Other interesting species reported this morning but not seen by me include an Ovenbird, a Winter Wren and a Snipe. Since I took the soap box today, I'm going to comment on warbler variety. A week or two ago Gail said it would be interesting to compare the relative abundance of warblers between Rock Creek and the coast. I think it would be at least as interesting to compare Rock Creek to other nearby locations. For example, I wandered around PG county the last couple of mornings and came up with the following count: 87 Myrtle, 2 Black-throated Blue, 2 Magnolia, 2 Palm, 2 Yellowthroat, 1 Parula, 1 Cape May. The species lists are not that much different, but the Myrtle to Black-throated Green ratios should make one think either of poor identification skills or transcription errors. Although I didn't see it this fall, last spring there was a strong anti-correlation between the days I had warblers along Indian Creek and the days they showed up at Rock Creek. Earlier this year, George Jett commented that the good Rock Creek days were poor warbler days in southern Maryland. Is it because I'm in the coastal plain and Rock Creek is just far enough west to be called the foothills? Dave David Mozurkewich Seabrook MD USA mozurk@bellAtlantic.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================