Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 14:50:12 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Rick Sussman Subject: Montgomery County Vesper Sparrow MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I was out again yesterday morning searching through prime Connecticut Warbler habitat, cornfields surrounded by scrubby woods and bordered by lots of weedy patches, for what remains an elusive bird. Last time I was here I came away with a (consolation prize) Linclon's Sparrow, but this time I found a VESPER SPARROW, a county bird for me! I was walking along a dirt/gravel road between cornfields, when a couple of sparrows flushed from the weeds beside the road. The first one I got on was the Vesper's, with a nice streaky breast and bold white eye-ring. It flew up to the top of a cornstalk with a Song Sparrow and gave me a few moments look before they both flew off. I could not relocate it for longer looks, though I tried. Other nice finds were Winter Wren, Swamp and White-throats, Chipping Sparrows, Sharpies, American Kestrel and many Cedar Waxwings and Bluebirds. This was in Sandy Spring, Montgomery County, behind Sherwood High School. The rural flavor of this area is soon to change. Winchester Homes has plans to develop the 400+ acres, leaving just a remnant parcel of "open space parkland" around the historic spring. Progress, phooey! Rick Sussman warblerick@aol.com Ashton,MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================