Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 10:19:42 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Arlene Ripley Subject: Calvert County birds Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed After over a months hiatus, I am finally back to doing some local birding! Here on the homefront, a huge flock (>100) of nervous Red-winged Blackbirds have appeared under the feeders as well a another huge flock (>100) of American Goldfinches at the thistle feeders. I am scouring that flock for redpolls but no luck so far. Other interesting feeder birds are 3-4 Purple Finches (seen daily for the last several weeks), a Fox Sparrow and an Eastern Towhee. At the window feeder, the pair of Red-breasted Nuthatches still make many daily visits (they've been here all winter) and "my" Pine Warbler returned a week ago after a 3-month hiatus. It visits the feeder which is only inches from my computer desk and breaks into song, at times it's so loud it startles me. I think this is the same bird that has been visiting since March of 1999! Other window feeder birds include a flock of 5 Eastern Bluebirds, Carolina Wrens and Chickadees, titmice, woodpeckers and a cheeky male Ruby-crowned Kinglet that is irked by his reflection in the window. Whenever he lands and sees himself, he flares that red crown and chatters like crazy. He sometimes breaks into full song. Yesterday (2/26) while at Flag Ponds checking salamander traps and counting birds, I observed the following: Northern Gannet - 24 American Widgeon - 22 Gadwall - 18 Mallard - 11 Wood Duck - 7 American Black Duck - 6 Long-tailed Duck - 14 Bufflehead - 79 Turkey Vulture - 1 Bald Eagle - 1 adult Red-tailed Hawk - 1 Red-shouldered Hawk - 1 Sanderling - 18 Killdeer - 2 Ring-billed Gull - 8 Herring Gull - 11 Great Black-backed Gull - 1 Bonaparte's Gull - 15 Mourning Dove - 2 Belted Kingfisher - 2 Red-bellied Woodpecker - 2 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 1 Downy Woodpecker - 4 Hairy Woodpecker - 4 Northern Flicker - 2 Pileated Woodpecker - 1 Blue Jay - 2 American Crow - 6 Eastern Bluebird - 1 Hermit Thrush - 1 Brown Creeper - 1 Carolina Wren - 1 Winter Wren - 1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 3 Carolina Chickadee - 9 Tufted Titmouse - 4 Yellow-rumped Warbler - 21 Pine Warbler - 1 Fox Sparrow - 1 Song Sparrow - 4 White-throated Sparrow - 4 Dark-eyed Junco - 2 Northern Cardinal - 6 Red-winged Blackbird - 40 Common Grackle - 3 Other observations: One anglewing and two Orange Sulphur butterflies, Spring Peepers calling, several Spring Beauty plants were blooming and the buds on the Spicebush are swelling. //////// Arlene Ripley | || Calvert County, MD | 0 || aripley@nestbox.com | || http://www.nestbox.com || ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================