Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 03:16:40 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: Western Maryland over the weekend - NOSH and NOSH MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi all, Jim Stasz and I spent the weekend birding western Maryland and trying to get atlas evidence for some rare western Maryland breeders. A few selected highlights of the weekend were: * 10-15 Northern Shovelers (NSHO, not NOSH) at Garrett County (Meadow Lake, Piney Res) and Allegany (Rocky Gap) Lakes on Monday 25 Mar 2002. * 1 continuing adult NORTHERN SHRIKE (NSHR, not NOSH, the first time I've had this code conflict) at Finzel Swamp. This bird perched up briefly for us in snags on the left side of the trail about halfway from the parking area to the pond. This may be a state late date (late date in Yellow Book is 10 Mar, but there have been two later records since then: Assateague by J.B. Churchill and Patuxent Naval Air Station in 2001. * 1 Golden Eagle migrating downridge along Backbone Mountain at Aaron Run Road 24 Mar 2002. * 2 Long-tailed Ducks at Meadow Lake and 2 at Piney Res on 25 Mar * Continuing immature (second-year) Red-headed Woodpecker 23 Mar along the C& O Canal in the North Branch area of Allegany County, first founf by Gwen Brewer and George Jett * 1 Black Vulture flying alongside New Germany Road, Garrett County, 23 Mar. They are still rare in Garrett but seem to be increasing. * Displaying woodcocks at numerous sites in Washington and Garrett Counties, as well as calling owls at several locations, all noted on our atlas maps. * A very few nesting confirmations - Rock Dove w/ nesting material, Red-shoudlered Hawk on a nest, and a couple others. * Despite much searching and watching, we were unable to ifnd a Common Raven nests, even at historical sites we knew about. Early state egg dates are in early Feb, so does anyone have any advice on locating raven nests? When are they nestbuilding? Feeding young? Anyone aware of active nests in the state now? What stage are they in? See the following post for another weekend highlight 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================