Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2001 12:44:12 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Rick Sussman Subject: Signs of Spring MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi again, I went back to Tucker Lane on Saturday AM to check on the Fox Sparrow invasion of the previous day. I did not see a single one, and in fact very few of any type of sparrows. They seem to have been replaced by Winter Wrens, which were abundant (at least 6) and singing from the woody tangles along the river. Also there were many Eastern Phoebes along the river, many more than previously present. A lone female Hooded Merganser was suddenly floating out in mid-river, when moments before it wasn't there. Wood Ducks flew over in small groups, squealing as they went. This morning I went and checked Tucker Lane again, finding it fairly quiet. I then went to Triadelphia Reservoir at Greenbridge Road. Scanning from the boat launch, there was a single Common Loon, 2 Horned Grebes (both in basic plumage still),and many Common Mergansers. A walk along the fire road was not terribly productive, but I did have a small pocket of activity which included Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers both on the same limb, one above the other, 3 Brown Creepers in view at once, Pileated and Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Eastern Phoebe and Bluebird, White-breasted Nuthatch, and 2 more Common Loons on the water. Back at the boat launch again, I found 2 loons calling/yodeling to each other across the water, a nearly full adult Bald Eagle flying along the edge, a small group of Golden-crowned Kinglets working the pines and 2 Pine Warblers as well. A small group of Tree Swallows flew over the water, but still I haven't found an Osprey, nor any early warblers. Spring is proceeding rather slowly, I think... Rick Sussman Ashton,MD (Montgomery County) warblerick@aol.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================