Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2001 07:49:51 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Rick Sussman Subject: Re: Lake Elkhorn, Ruddy, HowCo MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 10/3/2001 8:59:05 PM Eastern Daylight Time, white-crown@HOME.COM writes: > . And on a very positive note, the female Black-throated Blue > was eating Tearthumb berries! > > Kurt, Nice to read of your good birds at Lake Elkhorn, but you should be aware that finding warblers (or any species) eating tearthumb berries should not be viewed as a "positive" thing. Though this noxious weed does provide a food source, and I imagine a limited habitat cover, the eating of its fruit is a direct source of the plants spreading behavior. The berries are digested but the seeds pass through the birds and are spread in the droppings over a wide range of habitats. This plant is rapidly becoming a nuisance in many parks in Montgomery County, and, likely in all parts of MD. 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================