Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2001 21:50:50 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Paul Subject: Wish all my commutes were like this... Comments: To: Janni Ottavio , Voice Comments: cc: "Stasz, Jim" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit This morning, on my bike ride to work from Arlington to DC I had a wonderful experience (perhaps an answer to my grumbling about how miserably cold it was so close to spring). It was a brisk ride at 6 am up the bike trail along the Potomac, and as I was passing the soccer fields at Gravelly Point I spied 2 good-sized birds sitting in the middle of the field. Sensing they were unusual, I stopped and watched. For the next 5+ minutes I had a ringside seat as I watched two adult PEREGRINES interacting. One bird, larger than the other so presumably a female, was eating something (couldn't tell what it was). The second bird, presumably a male since it was smaller, was hanging close by the other, looking like it was trying to get to the food. It called frequently, and repeatedly got up and flew in a big circle around the field and relatively low to the ground (getting fairly close to me at times). One time it perched in a tree by the bike trail. Shortly after that, during one of it's big circles, it detoured and gave chase to an adult BALD EAGLE flying up river. Eventually the female walked/hopped away from the food, but the male didn't go after it, so perhaps there was more going on here than just eating. Suddenly it didn't seem so cold. Good birding, Paul Pisano Arlington, VA cheep@erols.com P.S. I know Gravelly Point is in Arlington, so I'm stretching the limits of this list, but the eagle and one of the Peregrines were seen, in part, in DC. Both species were new for my "Bike to Work" list. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================