Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2002 19:04:12 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Bonnie Ott Subject: Re: Ho Co (Misc.) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT > > Bonnie, I've had Song Sparrows at my feeder all winter. How did you > determine that this bird was a migrant and not a wintering bird? It may not surprise some folks to hear this but I happen to know every sparrow in my yard by name (and I'm not kidding!!). Even though I have a 170+ species yard list and I wouldn't trade it for anything I am cursed with a lack of sparrows. My song sparrow sightings are so rare (seriously!!) that it is an EVENT of some magnitude when I get one. Maybe this fellow was wintering somewhere else in the area but I suspect he is a new arrival. I keep fairly good numbers on songs in my usual birding spots to track their highs and lows. Now that the fox sparrows are on the move I think the songs are soon to be increasing in numbers also. I also find it interesting that swamps are consistent until late Jan/early Feb- and then they disappear until March. Anyone else notice this in the piedmont? Bonnie Ott (field trip chair) Ellicott city, Howard County Maryland bonnie1163@comcast.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================