Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 10:06:17 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Todd Day Subject: Re: Western Maryland over the weekend - NOSH and NOSH Comments: cc: Clapp.Roger@NMNH.SI.EDU MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 03/28/02 3:18:06 AM Eastern Standard Time, Miliff@AOL.COM writes: << * Despite much searching and watching, we were unable to find 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? >> Regarding Common Ravens breeding, I can give information about one nest that I keep an eye on in Fauquier County, Virginia (in northern VA, just south of Loudoun and west of Prince William Counties). This pair is nesting on the Piedmont near the town of Warrenton, and has been doing so for at least three breeding seasons. The nest is near the top of a large microwave tower (or so I am told, as I don't know much about the various towers that dot our horizons), making it impossible to see into it. However, on 25 May 2002 I observed one raven on or next to the nest, and a second raven brought food to the nest. I was unable to see whether the food was brought to an incubating mate or to young. This seems on a typical schedule for this pair, though it is difficult to know when birds hatch due to the nest location and sporadic monitoring. Of interest might be the known late and early dates for ravens in Virginia, from R.B. Clapp's 1997 "Egg Dates for Virginia Birds." Early Piedmont (and state) is 26 February from 1986 in Nelson County. Early Mountain and Valley date is 27 February from 1986 in Staunton. The late date comes from the Mountains and Valley, and is listed at 24 April from 1967, with the caveat that Clapp thinks the date (which was taken from the Red and Blue Book of VA) might be a misreading of material in the Virginia data files. Clapp also lists Mountain and Valley dates from 5 March, 11 March, and 17 March. Only the stage of the eggs on the 17 March record is listed; those eggs were in their third day of incubation. Cheers... Todd - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Todd M. Day Jeffersonton, VA Culpeper County BlkVulture@aol.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================