Date: Sun, 5 Nov 2000 08:07:35 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Rick Sussman Subject: Layhill Park sightings, Saturday, Nov. 4, 2000 Comments: cc: voice@capaccess.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I walked the "south" trails at Layhill Park Saturday morning, all the way back to Bonifant Rd. and turned up some nice things, including; Blue-headed Vireo (feeding in a small willow tree) Gray Catbird Lincoln's Sparrow At least 9 Fox Sparrows 3 Rusty Blackbirds Also seen were many dozens of Song, Swamp, and White-throated Sparrows, a few Field Sparrows, juncos, towhees, both kinglets, Red-shouldered and Red-tailed Hawks, Cooper's Hawk (imm.), Cedar Waxwings, bluebirds, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Hairy W.P. Beyond the thrill of seeing some late migrants, and 9 Fox Sparrows, a flock of crows were mobbing something in a small tree which was covered with bittersweet vine. A Red-shouldered Hawk (adult) flew over my head, landed in the same tree as the crows, joining an immature Red-shouldered Hawk which was perched there. This is what I thought the crows were mobbing (the imm. hawk), but as I watched, a Great Horned Owl stepped out from the bittersweet, into plain view, ruffled its feathers, raised its "horns" and then flew off heading south, obviously having enough of the crows! It was really a treat to see the owl in the same tree as two Red-shouldered Hawks (they were literally within a couple of feet of the owl!). It was one of my more memorable trips to Layhill Park, which sometimes can be very dull, other times very active. Rick Sussman warblerick@aol.com 301-221-6868 (Tues. A.M.) ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================