Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2000 18:13:55 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Paul O'Brien Subject: Frederick Co. Snowy Owl - YES on Tuesday 12/12 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Paul and Dan Boone located the Snowy Owl at about 4:15 PM today along New Design Road at the intersection of Oland and Mountville Roads. They immediately drove down New Design to fetch Harvey Mudd and me. We then spent @45 minutes watching the owl make two kills as it flew from one telephone pole to another. The first kill was a very small rodent whose tail disappeared in one gulp. The second was larger and the owl took it out into the field at the northeast corner of New Design and Oland Roads to eat. It was still there when we left at 5:05 with little light remaining. It may be that this bird is most active in the late afternoon. The good news is that it seems to be quite successful in hunting, which could mean that it stays around for a while. The bad news is that it is hunting along the edges of a road that has become heavily travelled by commuters at precisely the time the owl is most active, and risks being hit. Let's hope for the best. Paul O'Brien Rockville, Mont. Co. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================