Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2002 16:07:32 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: Re: Hoffman-Iliff II - no thrilla here Comments: cc: Georgearmistead@aol.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit My good friend Mark, I do indeed agree that "Former Mr. Worcester County" doesn't have the same ring of authority...but I digress. I understand there is some side-action going on and figured I better get my repsonse out quickly so that MDOsprey doesn't get busted as an elaborate veil for a covert gambling operation. Such trivial questions. I thought you said you were going to throw down a gaunlet of some sort? You do yourself a disservice by providing such detailed hints. Not that I needed any hints...the identification of the mystery bird was practically calling to me in my sleep. For the sake of Mark and the one other person who will actually read this email in its entirety (at least one person has confessed that the Iliff-Hoffman bouts are their favorite part of MDOsprey :-) [hi Simone!],) however, I will expound a bit on why the answer was so obvious. Given that it is a semi-hardy seed-eating passerine (and thus not a warbler, flycatcher, swallow, _Catharus_ thrush, or vireo), here are the potential options: BALTIMORE ORIOLE Even Mark would have found this species in Maryland in winter by now... ORCHARD ORIOLE This one is disqualified based on Mark's criterion #2 - anyone in the state would be interested in chasing Maryland's first Hooded Oriole, most of all Mark. Oh did I foget to mention that if Mark had reported an Orchard I would have instantly realized that he had misidentified the Hooded... ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK An interesting candidate, given that I just received some photos of a gorgeous male coming to a private feeder in Saint Mary's County this winter. This simply isn't an option because if Louise Zemaitis can find a Bell's Vireo in Cape May she certainly wouldn't miss a bigger black-and white bird with a scarlet breast! Anyway, noone ever finds these things in winter away from feeders - least of all Mark. BOBOLINK This one would be pretty snazzy, since Maryland's only record after Nov was one that Michael O'Brien (why does that name sound familiar) found for the Seneca CBC back in mid-Dec sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s. Most of these guys should be ravaging the rice fields of South America by now. No rice in E.A. Vaughn South though. DICKCISSEL Mark probably chased the bird found on the Ocean City CBC back in the 1980s at the same Ocean City feeder with the Brewer's Blackbird. I know he missed the blackbird though since he didn't get his state Brewer's until 13 Jan 1992 at George's Island Landing (OK Mark, that was a good find...my state bird(s) too!.) This seems an appealing option since it is practically a dirt bird in Worcester County in fall (mid-Aug to Oct) when flyovers are regularly detected on Assateague. But again we know that the O'Brien-Zemaitis hit-team wouldn't miss any bright yellow birds "forting" from the bushes... BLUE GROSBEAK Common Worcester breeder and easy field marks for Hoffman to detect make this one an alluring option. Mark knows enough about bird distribution in Maryland though that he would have made his excitement a bit more evident - Blue Grosbeak has just one MD winter record (Southern Dorchester CBC last year!), while its smaller relative is known from 5-10 solid winter records in MD. INDIGO BUNTING This one seems like an almost perfect option. But that wasn't what Mark found. GRASSHOPPER SPARROW I know that Mark has great difficulty finding this species in Worcester County, as he had been seriously county listing for some 17 years until he finally found his first Worcester County Grasshopper Sparrow at Ocean City Airport, 24 Apr 1992. Any competent birder that visits Worcester County anytime from May-Aug will know that this species is one of the more common breeders there. But perhaps Mark went to one too many Grateful Dead concerts and has lost some high-range hearing. Then again Mark didn't get his STATE Philadelphia Vireo until 16 Sep 1990 - so maybe he's been a late learner with this whole birdwatching thing... I also know that Mark hasn't even been able to find one of these in Worcester in winter. I myself have seen three now: one in Feb 1991 in Caroline Co.; one in my backyard Dec 1996 for the Annapolis CBC; and one in Feb 2001 at E.A. Vaughn WMA (same field as a Le Conte's!). We looked for this bird last Feb 18 to no avail. Given the cavalier attitude that Mark used towards the bird, I expected the answer would be a truly common breeding bird that even he could detect in summer - else he would have recommended that county listers chase it. Mark still considers Grasshopper Sparrow a "good" Worcester bird. Nonetheless, it is obvious that Mark has finally overcome this personal hardship of his and finally discovered another Worcester County Grasshopper Sparrow (have you seen any since 1992, Mark?.) We're all moving up in the world I guess. Who's the weakest link?, Marshall Iliff miliff@aol.com Annapolis, MD PS - Nice find Mark. Third Worcester winter record, right? Or does the OC CBC have more than one record? > Subj: [MDOSPREY] Hoffman-Iliff II > Date: 12/30/2001 9:37:36 PM Eastern Standard Time > From: MHoff36100@AOL.COM (Mark Hoffman) > Sender: MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Maryland Birds & Birding) > Reply-to: MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Maryland Birds & Birding) > To: MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM > > For newer MDOsprey subscribers, a little history is needed. As you may > remember, my good friend Marshall Iliff stripped me of my "Mr. Worcester > County" title some time ago, in a "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" style-quiz > in which I failed to guess that Hooded Merganser was the latest addition to > the Worcester breeding avifauna. Needless to say, I have wanted the title > back ever since. Being know as "former Mr. Worcester County" just doesn't > have the same ring of authority. > > Remember Ali-Frazer II, or as I just saw promoted on cable, "Godzilla vs. > Space Godzilla"?? It's the same deal here. A battle of the titans, > mental-migets, guys with too much time on their hands, call it what you > will. > I'm throwing down the gantlet. > > Here's the test: Today, 12/30, during a half-day of birding at Vaughn > WMA/South (after the Chincoteague CBC yesterday-that will be a separate post > when the numbers are crunched), I observed a species new for my Worcester > December list. In fact, it was the first time I had observed this species > at > all during winter in Worcester, or Maryland for that matter. It has not > been > recorded in the Maryland sector of the Chincotague CBC (at least since 1991 > when we began keeping detailed records), so it is an addition to the > cumulative list as a "count week" bird. Michael O'Brien and Louise Zemaitis > covered this area yesterday but missed it. (Given that I so rarely best > Michael I don't think he'll mind me mentioning this. After all, they did > find a Bell's Vireo for the Cape May count!! I need to tell them to keep > some of their powder dry for Maryland..) > > Other hints related to the bird included: 1) it is passerine, 2) no one, > except maybe you Marshall, would be interested in chasing it, but you're not > doing "big Januarys" any more, and 3) it is not likely to die from cold > weather, lack of insects, etc. > > That's it. I know Marshall's down in Baja doing a count with a some of this > West Coast friends, so I'll stay quiet until he returns to the electronic > world (Dave and Mary Ann, you keep your lips sealed also). > > To the weakest link! > > Mark Hoffman > Sykesville, MD > Mhoff36100@aol.com > *********************** Marshall Iliff miliff@aol.com Annapolis, MD ************************ ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================