Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 20:02:57 GMT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Don Burggraf Subject: Worcester birds and sparrow question Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Hi, all. Went to OC for a meeting Monday and Tuesday. I took some free time for birding. I didn't know about the Flycatcher at Assateague but did catch a Great Horned Owl and three Woodcocks at sunset in the Life of the Dunes trail parking lot. 3 Bobwhites and a Black-bellied Plover at the Life of the Forest trail. Three Snowy Egrets graced the normal collection at West OC Pond. I did catch the Harlequins and a Great Cormorant at the Jetty. The most unusual bird for Monday amused me. At 8:00 p.m., I was waiting for dinner at a hotel restaraunt with friends. I was seated right beside a glass door(an emergency exit, I think), facing out to the ocean. A blur caught my eye. I looked down outside the glass door to see a Black-throated Blue Warbler hopping on the doorstep. He calmly flew away just before my tablemates got a chance to enjoy him, too. I hope that some kind-hearted birder can offer a suggestion for a mystery sparrow I saw Tuesday morning in the grass just east of the 97th street woods (behind the Mall). My first impression was that of a very pale sparrow. Its forehead appeared flat. It had a red lower mandible and red legs. Its upper breast and sides showed pale streaking, and it showed white on the belly. Its tail appeared long, and the wing extension did not cover the upper tail coverts. Its nape was pale brown, and showed very fine streaking. Its pale back had brown streaks edged in black. Its crown had a narrow white central stripe, bordered on each side by brown stripes that showed fine streaking. It had a narrow eye ring. It had a face patch bordered by a white malar stripe, and a brown eye line. The face patch was slightly darker brown than the pale brown eye stripe and nape, and it showed a lighter spot on the posterior edge of the patch, behind the eye. Looking over the National Geo afterwards, the closest I could get was a juvenile White-crowned Sparrow (the red mandible led me there). However, the pale overall color doesn't sit well with that ID, nor the flat forehead, nor does the fact that I saw it first in the grass, and it was running from tuft to tuft. (It saw me and froze, allowing me to observe it for between two and tree minutes at close range.) ID suggestions for birds one doesn't see are usually impossible, I know. But if anyone would be willing to offer a helpful word, I would appreciate it. Don Burggraf Baltimore _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================