Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2001 22:37:28 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Rick Sussman Subject: Sightings for Layhill Park, Oct. 27 Comments: To: voice@capaccess.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi all, Well, I birded Layhill Park again, this time by myself, enjoying a beautiful sunny day, but a bit breezy... Early good birds included female PURPLE FINCHES (4) and HERMIT THRUSHES (3-4) along the north trail. I went to the end of this trail, just past the small white wooden shed which borders the woods there, and followed it into the woods. It seems a new trail has been made heading up the ridge (or hill) to the left. On previous walks I have only ever seen the trail which heads across the stream and deeper into woods. Anyway, I followed this new trail up and around the ridge, finding small groups of birds, until it ended overlooking the golf course. As I stood there momentarily, a large raptor flew out over my head and began to soar above a fairway, being harassed by a crow. My first instinct was "falcon" because of what appeared to be pointed wing-tips, then I though "buteo" because of the broadness of the wings, and size, compared with the crow (which was much smaller). Eventually, the bird made its way off over the tree line, but not before I got good looks at the underneath patterning (speckled, dingy below), and the typical accipiter shape; long tail with a big musculature indicating a juvenile NORTHERN GOSHAWK. Later, on the way back out I saw a small male Sharp-shinned Hawk, about 3-4 Red-tailed Hawks, 2 Gray Catbirds, and sparrows including Song, Swamp, White-throated, Chipping and Field. Small flocks of roving Cedar Waxwings, E. Bluebirds, and both kinglets added spice to an already wonderful morning. After I got home and was taking the dog for a walk, a Cooper's Hawk flew over, making a 3 accipiter day! Rick Sussman Ashton,MD warblerick@aol.com 301-221-6868 (Tues. AM) ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================