Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2002 21:39:23 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: STEVE NOYES Subject: Morning Bird Tour at Patuxent Refuge 4/9 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Fellow Birders... This morning I led a bird "van tour" at North Tract from 7:30 to 10:30 a.= m. I had one participant, a novice who had taken my "Basics of Birding" c= lass this winter. It started windy and ended windier. I was hoping the wa= rm south wind had brought in some migrants. We did pick up a Louisiana Wa= rbler on the River Trail up in a tree above the river at eye level and a = female wood duck spooked up from below the river bank. Lots of resident b= irds busy defending territories. In a grove of young pines on Wildlife Loop, we saw several pine and palm = warblers Only three mallards and one Can. goose at Merganser Pond..with l= ots of tree swallows overhead. Starlings (ugh!!) were active at one of th= e "kestrel boxes" and several pairs of BH cowbirds (ugh! again) were on t= elephone wires nearlby. Our purple martin colony has yet to arrive at th= e Wildlife Viewing Area. The wind carried mostly TV's (turkey vultures fo= r the uninitiated) and one cooper's hawk; at least that's all we saw with= the naked eye. Under the power lines, we had singing E. towhees, field sparrows, and a c= hipping sparrow. An E. phoebe was just beginning its nest under the metal awning over a do= or at the Visitor Contact Station (3rd or 4th year in a row that a phoebe= has nested there). On my mid-week bird tours, I try to spend 20-30 minutes in as many habita= ts as we can visit. If you're interested in attending a future bird walk or tour, check out t= he patuxent.fws.gov website for dates and times. Pre-registration is requ= ired due to limited seating in van (12 people comfortably). My next mid-w= eek tour at North Tract is May 15 (Wed.) 7 - 10 a.m. I'd love to have som= e extra eyes and ears; this is close to the busiest time for migration. T= wo other volunteers lead weekend van tours and walks on weekends, for tho= se unlucky stiffs who have to WORK!! As Alfred Hitchcock said, BIRDS ARE COMING!!!!! Steve Noyes Volunteer Naturalist Patuxent Research Refuge, Laurel MD evetsseyon@msn.com =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D =========================================================================