Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 13:14:37 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Fred Fallon Subject: A mystery bird and a rarity MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Last evening, near sunset, while looking at a Redstart and for a Magnolia known to be in the yard, we came across another warbler high (>50') in the tree-tops. Below, it was solid yellow from chin to tail, with prominent dark stripes confined to the flanks - just like a Prairie Warbler. The upperside was unifiormly dark, w/o wingbars or any markings - exactly like a Canada. The dark head and face, unpatterned except perhaps for a hint of white around the eye, contrasted with the solid yellow chin and throat. The under-tail seemed uniformly colored. The bird was quite active; remained in the upper branches; never vocalized. Are there any ideas what this might have been? Is there such a thing as a Prairie x Canada hybrid? Or.. A bird calls out to my subconscious from the dense underbrush of fantasy. I tremble to even put a name to it. But its call seems to rhyme with "Michigan". This morning we were anxious to relocate the bird but it had evidently moved on overnight. But as if in compensation, later this morning (May 16) at Merkle WMA, I saw, hopping on bare ground between emerging soybeans, a Lark Sparrow. No doubt of ID this time, since the bird came to within 10' of me. This is exactly 35 years to the day from an identical experience in the field above the canal at Seneca, where another Lark Sparrow presented itself to my amazement. If any periodicity can be inferred, I should keep especially alert on May 16 2036. I could maybe just squeeze this into my life records. Fred Fallon Bowie MD fwfallon@mnsinc.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================