Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 08:40:13 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding <MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM> Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding <MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM> From: Henry Armistead <74077.3176@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: Nashville; Blackwater, Elliott 3/25 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Nashville Warbler. Seen every day Jan. 14-March 7, 2001, except for c. 3 days, at the home of Charlotte & Bill Diedrich on Blinkhorn Creek west of Hurlock. "Feeds several times a day, usually in company with juncos. Likes suet cakes and mixed seeds on feeding platforms or on the ground. Undaunted by 6" snowfall." The Diedrichs, who were on my bird walk today, showed me 3 very good photographs of it. I don't think the Nashville was very well publicized while it was here. The "Yellow Book" lists 5 other state winter records. March 25, 2001. 8-noon at Blackwater. 2-4:30 at Elliott Island. 37-48 degrees. The Diedrichs had a reading of 26 in their yard. Wind NW-SW 20-5 m.p.h. A cold, but sunny day. 82 species. At Rigby at 5:45 A.M. I looked out the window and was astounded to see a male Bald Eagle swoop in and land in a locust tree 50 feet from my window, our first record of one perched right in the house yard area. 6 of us on the Blackwater birdwalk saw 9 Great Egrets, 185 Snow & 15 Blue Geese, 75 shovelers, 47 Ring-necked Ducks, an adult Golden Eagle (right overhead and rather low with 3 Bald Eagles up there with it), only 4 Laughing Gulls, 11 Forster's Terns, 5 imm. White-crowned Sparrows. We spent 0.5 hrs. looking for the Orange-crowned Warbler to no avail but it was seen on March 24 (a.k.a. yesterday). Festival of fur, part one: 5 Fox Squirrels at Blackwater. At Elliott Island. 80 Double-crested Cormorants and 2 Brown Pelicans at the pound nets. The pelicans are probably a record early arrival date for the county but are hardly a surprise, esp. since Marty Cribb had some days ago at Smith Island. 6 Blue-winged Teal, 2120 Ruddy Ducks (far offshore in Fishing Bay but only 2 Canvasbacks and c. 65 Lesser Scaup with them), a dark-phase Rough-legged Hawk, 26 Greater & 4 Lesser Yellowlegs, 95 Dunlin and 10 Long-billed Dowitchers (these shorebirds all at the "gallinule spot"). Two Great Horned Owls calling at 3:15. Three Wild Turkeys. Festival of fur, part two. At sunset I stopped at the beaver dam just south of milepost 119 on Route 301 (Kent Co., as mentioned in my post last week) and was most pleased to see a large Beaver slowly steaming upstream (i.e., to the east) and another beaver dam c. 200 feet farther upstream which I did not notice last week. Lots of Skunk Cabbage coming up here in this wooded swamp. One Cabbage White today. One Red-bellied Turtle at Blackwater. Strange misses: Black Vulture, kingfisher. Miscegenatin', mongrelizin' and every which way but loose. A phrase from one of Leadbelly's blues was "make a jack rabbit hug a hound." Saw (and heard) some real "barnyard behavior" today. At Blackwater a Mallard X Am. Black Duck hybrid male was paired off with a female Mallard, while nearby a male Mallard was "copulating" with ... another male Mallard. At Elliott Island Southern Leopard Frogs were calling lustily including several "release calls", which Lang Elliott's frog tape tells us happen when at the height of the chase a male frog gloms onto ... another male frog and the male frog on the receiving end is saying in effect "Unhand me sir." Earlier in the day at Blackwater the Spring Peepers and Chorus Frogs we heard were much more tentative in the morning chill. Also at Elliott a golden and a black lab were "that way" at the McCready's Creek marina. A pair of Ospreys was repeatedly trying to place nesting material on the sharply-sloped roof of a barn owl nest box at the refuge. Might be time to give this all a rest. Remember 'Carousel'?: "All the rams are chasing ewe sheep are determined there'll be new sheep and the ewe sheep aren't even keeping score." That was "June is busting out all over". Well birds, dogs, and froggies - it's only March for the love of Pete. A most satisfying day. Best to all.-Harry Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA 19119. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================