Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2001 18:07:16 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Rick Sussman Subject: Sightings for Saturday, Oct. 13 and Sunday, Oct. 14 Comments: To: voice@capaccess.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Saturday, Oct. 13, Ashton, Montgomery County, MD Another sighting of MERLIN, while walking my dog. He must be a lucky charm! About 5:30 I took the dog for a walk, with my daughter (glad I also took the bins, in hindsight). About 1/2 way out to our usual spot for the dog, I spied a bird in the large oak tree out in the field. I first though it to be a kestrel, but it was darker and a bit larger. A crow perched in the same tree, a bit lower. Soon the Merlin took off after the crow, chased it around for a bit, then flew right over our heads and landed in the top of a large wild cherry tree along the hedgerow. There it stood for a while, as I got great views. Winds buffeted it about (as it perched in the tree), and it soon left and flew back towards the field, and shortly disappeared over the other side. Based on its size and color, I'd say it was a female. Sunday, Oct. 14, Sandy Spring, Montgomery County, MD Birded along the Sandy Spring area. Found many "yellow" Palm Warblers, and at least 1 western Palm Warbler. Many E. Bluebirds, Cedar Waxwings, 2 House Wrens, a single Osprey flying circles over the fields, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Am. Kestrel, Brown Creeper, many Chipping Sparrows, Red-shouldered and Red-tailed Hawks, small numbers of Chimney Swifts (about a dozen). Greenbridge Rd. area of Triadelphia Reservoir: Another Osprey, a lone Pectoral Sandpiper (2 present on Saturday PM), 2 Double-crested Cormorants. Rick Sussman Ashton,MD warblerick@aol.com 301-221-6868 ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================