Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 14:45:00 +0000 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Don Burggraf Subject: Owl and a wren question Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Hi, all. This posting is a little late, but still may be of interest. Returning from a short trip to the Outer Banks on Sunday, I was driving on I-95, just getting on to I-495 around Washington DC. Dusk was deepening to the point where headlights became a necessity (except for the many overhead carbon arc lights flooding the road). I try to keep my eyes on the road as I drive, but sometimes that become hard to do. So it was this night, when a large owl flew over my windshield, at an estimated height of about 30 feet. Identifications in transit are often difficult, but the large size, the great girth of the torso, the wide, rounded wings make me think that it was a Great Horned. Not an unusual bird for our area of course, but certainly an unusual Beltway bird for me! Also, I have a question for any who would be willing to share advice. Believing that Sedge Wrens are a little more common in coastal NC than here, I tried for one at Pea Island and then again at the Bodie Island light house. No luck. I even had a tape, which brought forth no reactions at all at Pea Island, and only seemed to irritate a few Virginia Rails at Bodie. Sibley's guide cautions that Sedge Wrens are secretive enough that getting a good enough look is hard to come by, especially since there are a number of secretive sparrows that also inhabit similar habitat and can confuse the issue. Could anyone offer me tips as to places in Maryland to try, or identification strategies to consider when I get a chance to try for a Sedge Wren again? You can reply off line. Thanks. Don Burggraf Baltimore dburggraf@hotmail.com _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================