Date: Tue, 8 May 2001 21:26:28 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Steve Sanford Subject: Re: good spots in western MD MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I am not a resident of W Md, but bird it fairly often. In response to the questions from Chris Barnard and Les Roslund: There certainly might be Ruffed Grouse at New Germany. I got my lifer about 2 miles from there. Whether they do any guttural clucking, I can't say for sure. Of course, their classic sound is the accelerating wing-beating display sound. Silly story: A few years back I was at the beginning of the entry road into the heart of Finzel Swamp in NE Garrett Co. listening to some bird or other. Then to my annoyance I heard a lawn mower starting up -- only to quickly realize, it was a Ruffed Grouse! The next year we were doing a field trip, and at that same spot, I told folks about my "lawnmower." Then, in fun, I started beating my chest at an accelerating pace, and, darn if a Ruffed Grouse didn't answer! New Germany State Park is a great place for what to us easterners are "migrant" warblers. (Reminder: "Migrant warblers" are the things that we're not seeing back east this spring.) At this time of year you can usually find resident Black-throated Green, Black-throated Blue, Magnolia, Blackburnian, and Canada Warblers, amongst others. As for Golden-wings and other species: The dryer, brushier areas along the Potomac in Garrett County, such as around Jennings Randolph Lake, or the road up to Dan's Rock (the overlook, not Dan's Mtn St Pk) out of Midland in Allegany County are good areas for Golden-winged Warbler, Cerulean Warbler, and Chestnut-sided Warbler. Western Allegany and all of Garrett County are also good for that beautiful honorary warbler: Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Finzel Swamp often has Alder Flycatcher, and Least Flycatchers are almost common throughout Garrett. With great luck, or hot tips, you might even find Mourning Warbler, but I haven't seen one for years. I hope to be checking some of these areas out within the next week. Steve Sanford tanager@bcpl.net Randallstown MD (Baltimore Co) ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================