Date: Sun, 7 Apr 2002 14:45:01 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Rick Sussman Subject: Re: Monk Parakeet in Anne Arundel County MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Norm, Nancy and I went out to see this bird (as well as to hit Sam's Club) yesterday afternoon, too. We found the nest very easily, it being so large. Just after we pulled into the upper parking lot, and before I could get my binoculars out, the bird flew up and landed on the wire, with a large stick in its bill. It almost immediately went into the nest and came out a while later, flew across the highway, and returned again with more nesting material. This went on for some time, allowing us to grab 3-4 quick digi-scope photos, which came out surprisingly well. A couple of funny things about this bird and place. Years ago in college (in Florida) I had a Monk Parakeet for a pet. After college I moved up here with Captain Underbird. I was just beginning to teach him to talk, when I met Nancy. She "insisted" I get rid of the bird ("it goes or I go"; hmmm, tough decision). I gave him and his beautiful cage away, to a friend of a friend. A short time later, we were married and lived in an apartment on Red Clay Rd! Yesterday, just before we left from viewing this bird in Laurel, I asked Nancy if she thought this could be Underbird, and if it was, and I got out of the van and held out my hand, calling for him, if he landed on my finger, would she let me keep him? Alas, we'll never know, as the Laurel bird never came back. But, it's nice to know her attitude towards birds has changed after 21 years of marriage to me! See you guys, hope you are well, Rick ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================