Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 07:47:29 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Rick Sussman Subject: Re: Alder Fly ID MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Bob, Matt, et al, This time of year, when we see so many flycatchers around, many of which are young birds and many times seen together with adults of both the same genus and others (pewees feeding near empids), I find it safest just to seperate out the E. Wood-pewee from empids, leaving the rest as simply empid sp. on my day list. Pewees are relatively easy to separate, but the others appear in such a confusing array of like plumages, in the field it is just impossible to tell them apart. The most enlightening reading (and something I try to re-read every year at this time, so I don't get too sure of myself) is Kenn Kaufman's Advanced Birding. He covers the pewees and empids rather fully in two chapters. For those who feel they can I.D. most (or even any) fall empids based on sight alone, I suggest reading the chapter on empids. Even Kaufman is humbled by them... Rick Sussman Ashton,MD 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================