Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2001 21:11:38 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Fred Shaffer Subject: Patuxent Pond Barred Owls & Whip-poor-will I got the chance to get out early this evening from 6:30 to around 8:15 and visited Patuxent Ponds Park in western Anne Arundel County. I hiked the fields and second growth woods first and saw many Towhees and several kinds of sparrows including White Throated, Song, House, and 1 Tree Sparrow. I then hiked into an area of wet, mature woods, which was largely uneventful except for a few Chicadees and Crows. However, as it began to get dark, I began hiking out of the woods and started to hear several Barred Owls calling, some quite close. At first they were just doing some hooting, but soon they began covering the full range of their vocal repertoire, including a lot of whooping and caterwauling. I saw one of the owls fly through the woods briefly. I listened for probably 15 minutes. I estimate that there were at least three owls present, two of which were close and one which was further away. After several minutes of quiet, I hike back through the area of fields and second growth trees and for several minutes heard one of the owls again in the woods to one side. I than saw a Whip- poor-will fly very low overhead and over and in between some of the small, second growth trees and fields in a zig-zagging motion after some insects, which were surprisingly plentiful. I also spotted one bat to round out the evening. Fred Shaffer Crofton, Anne Arundel fshaffer3@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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================