Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 01:14:45 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: Re: First-winter White-crowns, Fox Sparrows etc.. MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit MDOsprey, As an interesting alternative data point, the fields off Bywater Rd., Annapolis (which hosted Lark Sparrow 2 years ago, and Dickcissel, Orange-crowned Warbler, etc. in other winters), this year have one immature White-crowned Sparrow (WCSP). Here that is quite a rarity for mid-winter, and though I bird these fields rarely in fall, I have covered them on the Annapolis CBC for 7-8 years. This is the first White-crowned I have seen here (seen today, 22 Jan and also 25 Dec 2001). On the Annapolis CBC WCSP is a rarity, and though it falls short of being a boldface bird, it is not seen every year. This bird is interesting because it has almost no dusky in the lores, and resembles _gambelii_. However, very close looks do reveal some dusky coloration in the lores, and the bird does have a distinctly pinkish bill, so is undoubtedly an extreme example of _leucophrys_. Also this year there are an unusual number of Fox Sparrows here (8 on 25 Dec 2001 and 4 today) - another bird which I have never had in my CBC territory here. Finally, one other noteworthy bird today - a single brown morph Eastern Screech-Owl that I saw well while driving in my driveway at 5:40 p.m. This is my first brown morph for my yard and the second live one I've ever seen (two dead). Interestingly, during an earlier discussion of screech-owl morphs on MDOsprey (Jan 2001), Hal Wierenga reported finding one dead near the entrance to my driveway! Best, Marshall Iliff *********************** 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================