Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 19:13:41 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: Martin sp. in Kent County, Maryland Comments: To: georgearmistead@hotmail.com, BlkVulture@aol.com, jfontain@lamar.colostate.edu, pgaede@ngs.org, brian_gibbons@juno.com, robb.hamilton@gte.net, Paul Lehman , Christopher Wood , GreatGrayO@aol.com, obrienm@algorithms.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi all, This is being sent hurriedly to a broad list of people so I apologize for any cross-postings. Please feel free to forward this to anyone who might be interested or who might have words of advice. Today while cruising back roads south of Kennedyville in Kent County, MD, I was shocked to have an adult male Purple (type) Martin fly low across the road in front of me. Within ten seconds I had gone from 60 to 0, stopped in the middle of the road, an was out my car door with camera in hand. Fifteen minutes of searching yielded no further sightings and I was feeling that pang of angst you have when you had just too brief a look at a really good bird. Finally I decided to drive into the farmyard that I had seen the martin fly towards. I drove in to the back of the farm buildings and had a brief glimpse of the martin through the buildings. Driving out to the tip, I was shortly treated to good views of an adult male all-dark martin as it fed over a small pond and cattleyard. I quickly found the landowner, told him what I was doing, showed him the martin, and we collectively mused about what it might be doing here on so cold a day. I have very little to offer in terms of a plumage description. This was an adult male martin, all dark, with a glossy iridescence on the back and wings at least. To me the sheen on the back and upperwings seemed a bit more blue than I am accustomed to, but this is a very vague impression. The tail was deeply notched, but I cannot comment on how it compared to the normal notch of a Purple Martin. I saw no white, brown, or paler areas anywhere on the bird. I took about 15 photos, including 3-5 when it was perched on the ground and on a barbed wire fence. The bird spent its time feeding very low over the cow pasture only occasionally rising to 20 or 30 feet. There was a small pond in the pasture that it seemed to regularly return to. It did not call or interact with the hundreds of starlings and blackbirds also in the feedlot. On two occasions it perched on the bare earth among the cows and twice it perched on the barbed wire fence that surrounded the pond. I first saw the bird at about 12:10, relocated it around 12:25, and watched it steadily through 12:55 when I left to find a phone. While I was watching the bird I unfortunately did not recall that at least wo other species of martins are all-dark, and I was suspecting that despite the late date I had indeed found a Purple Martin. Only after reaching Paul Lehman in Cape May did he inform me that both Southern and Cuban Martins are possible, and are nearly identical to Purple Martin. He gave me some quick pointers on possible ID points and I returned to the farm to try to see the bird again. I was present from 2:30-3:45 but never saw the bird again. This was a very cold, blustery day, about 35-40 F, and with a strong N wind at 15-25 mph. It seemed like the kind of day that would be hard on martins, but this bird seemed generally OK for the time being. I strongly feel that the bird will stick to this locale if it survives the night, since the surrounding land is barren agriculture and in the farmyard it at least has shelter, a pond, cow dung that may have bugs, and cows that may provide some heat. I think it easily could have been roosting in a barn when I was present later in the afternoon and strongly suggest that others have a try for the bird in the morning. I will not post directions here but will give them to anyone interested who calls me in Ocean City (410-289-2160) or emails me. If a large crowd showed up at the landowner's farm we would certainly jeopardize all hospitality he has shown thus far. NOTE: On my return visit the landowner was quite upset that I drove into the farmyard again without checking with him first. He was quite angry even after my apologies, but he let me stay and continue to look. I talked to him as I was leaving at 3:45 and told him that others might want to come by. He said that would be no problem AS LONG AS THEY CHECKED IN FIRST. Please please please if you do look for this bird be sure to contact him immediately upon your arrival. Most of you will realize that a late November martin is so extraordinary that it must be identified with extreme caution. Southern Martin is an austral migrant that has shown up in Florida and Purple Martins typically withdraw from the USA very early in the year. Other austral migrants such as Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Brown-chested Martin, and Variegated Flycatcher have precedent for November appearances. I know of only one other November martin record for the USA -- the Brown-chested present in Cape May from 6-15 Nov 1998. That said, I offer no further speculation on the identity of this bird, but hope it piques the interest of some of you. Feel free to call me in Ocean City at any hour tonight to discuss the bird or get directions. Best, Marshall Iliff miliff@aol.com Ocean City, MD 410-289-2160 Excerpt from Paul Lehman's message to me on Martin identification: "I talked to both Louis Bevier and Steve Howell about martins. The bottom line is you'll almost certainly need a specimen, or at least the bird in the hand. The white bases on the belly feathers of Cuban Martin can be seen about as easily as the white neck on a Chihuahuan Raven. Both said Southern Martin has a very slightly longer and more deeply forked tail, whose value in the field would be minimal unless perhaps you saw the bird well perched and could note where on the tail/fork the primary tips fell. (They didn't say how they would fall...) And even then, it may or may not truly help. Steve also mentioned another species, Peruvian Martin, which is also pretty similar." Best, Marshall Iliff miliff@aol.com Ocean City, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================