Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 15:58:00 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Arlene Ripley Subject: Clay-colored Sparrow 5/24 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed The morning between 10 AM and 11:30, the Clay-colored Sparrow was present in the area well-described by others (in the vicinity of bluebird box 9) at Kinder Farm Park, AA County. The bird "buzzed" frequently and flew near to the top of several different cherry trees, preferring the highest one in that area. I could hear the bird vocalizing as I approached, well before seeing it. Prairie and Blackpoll Warblers were the most notable warblers this morning. Lots of mimic thrushes in this scrubby habitat. This looks to be a great spot for butterflies and while walking back to the car, I found the expected Red Admirals plus Black Swallowtails, Mourning Cloaks, American Lady, Silver-spotted Skippers, Sachem, and new for me this year: Least Skipper, Variegated Fritillary, Monarch and Viceroy. An interesting note about the Red Admirals -- there are large patches of nettles along the paths and many of the Red Admirals were actively laying eggs on the leaves, nettle being their larval host plant. //////// Arlene Ripley | || Calvert County, MD | 0 || aripley@nestbox.com | || http://www.nestbox.com || ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================