Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2000 13:15:21 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Raymond Wilson Subject: LARK and LINCOLN'S Sparrows, Worcester Co. 11/19/00 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII On Sunday morning I went looking for the Lark Sparrow that Marshall reported at the Assateague boat ramp. Didn't have any luck with the sparrow, but I did find 2 western race PALM WARBLERs. The first was in the knee-high weeds at the west end of the parking lot on the south side of the road just before the bridge over to Assateague island, and the second was feeding on the grass in among a large flock of Yellow-rumps opposite the boat ramp. The second bird still had a lot of chestnut in the crown. After 3 hours of searching for the Lark sparrow I gave up and went down to EA Vaughn north section to try for a LeConte's sparrow. No luck there either. I did flush a sparrow with a stripey back but I only got a glimpse of it before it disappeared never to be seen again. There were a couple of Greater Yellowlegs on the north pond and a Brown Thrasher and Pileated Woodpecker in the conifers beside the hummingbird feeder (unfortunately no hummingbirds). The best birds were found in the hedgerow as I was leaving: a beautiful LINCOLN'S SPARROW sat posing for me for about a minute, then a LARK SPARROW chased it off its perch! The Lark Sparrow was a pretty dull individual (for a Lark Sparrow) and was probably a 1st winter. It looked pretty much intermediate between the dull 1st winter and the adult illustrated in Sibley. The crown was chestnut with brownish-grey streaks, but the ear coverts showed no visible chestnut and were a drab greyish-brown. The underparts were a clean, creamy-white with a greyish spot in the centre of the lower breast and a few dark, narrow streaks at the edges of the upper breast. It sat on the perch for about 15seconds before a Merlin flew by scattering all the sparrows into deep cover. Other sparrows in the flock were SWAMP, SONG, WHITE-THROATED and FIELD. Other birds of interest seen during the day were: OC Inlet Purple Sandpiper Merlin - imm. Forster's Tern Great Cormorant (1ad + 1imm) W. OC pond Great Egret a lot of Hooded Mergansers (30-40) Tundra Swan American Wigeon (drake) plus all the usual common species (Canvasback, Green-winged Teal, Black Duck, Mallard, Gadwall, Ruddy Duck, Pintail, Pied-billed Grebe, American Coot) Ray Wilson College Park Prince George's Co. wilsonr@umbi.umd.edu ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================