Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2001 08:26:11 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Gail Mackiernan Subject: Status of some MD birds? There has been a dearth of posts on current status of some of the unusual birds about. For example, at a bird club meeting last night I heard that "The Snowy Owl is gone" and "No one has seen the shrike for days..." , but nothing to MDosprey. Also, no reports for a couple of weeks on the Harlequin Duck and -- since my husband and his brother found it -- we were interested as to its last sighting. Any input on that? (We saw it last on Dec. 29.) If the Snowy Owl IS gone, then this would immediately bring the Owl Circus to a halt -- so this news should be widely disseminated to birders. I would be less certain of the shrike, a notoriously fickle species, but again --if it is truly "in absentia" for a significant period, again it would relieve some of the recent -- although by no means as serious -- birder pressure on the area. And I assume that the Green-tailed Towhee has been looked for a bit and not relocated. I would bet it is still around but in a somewhat different area, there is so much habitat out there! Please remeber that NEGATIVE reports are as useful as positive reports, if one is planning a trip to look for a spacial bird. Cheers, Gail Mackiernan Colesville, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================