Date: Mon, 15 Apr 2002 08:52:45 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "Lovelace, Glen" Subject: more Vesper Sparrows Comments: To: DE-Birds MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Hello All, I went out yesterday morning 4/14 in search of as many Vespers as I could find. I was hoping for 10, but came up with 7 in two small groups. 3 were in the fields along Eskridge Rd near Middleford, DE. Taking Eskridge north from Old Furnace Rd, pass the houses until there are fields on both sides (the right/east side is owned by the Nature Conservancy). One bird on each side of the road there. The third in the was in the field on the left heard from the intersection of Sanfilippo Rd. These fields have last year's stubble still poking up among this spring's weeds. The Vespers like to sit up on the stalks and sing. My route continued west through Cannon (had a singing White-Crowned along the RR just south) to Hearn's Pond Rd, Briar Hook Rd and O'Bier Rd. Spots from years past yielded nothing. Much of this due to the dry conditions allowing for farming to start earlier in the season. On into MD, I circled Kinder Rd, Adams Rd, Davis Millpond Rd, and Oak Grove Rd in Caroline and the edge of Dorchester Co.. Again, most of this was already being farmed. However, there was a Vesper in the field in the corner of Davis Millpond and Oak Grove Rds, seen from Davis Millpond Rd. There was another along Oak Grove Rd nearer to MD 577 and then 2 at the traditional spot (described in last week's post). Of the 7, I saw 5 of them. Making my rounds at Oak Grove, I tallied 6 new species for the homelist for the year. Returnees were Barn Swallow, Ovenbird, Yellowthroat, and Gnatcatcher plus RC Kinglet and Yellow Rumps moving back through. Leaving the Sussex Bird Club meeting at Prime Hook, we saw 2 turkeys cross the entrance road. Good Birding, Glen Lovelace III Seaford, DE ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================