Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2002 21:11:52 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Stan Arnold Subject: Whip-poor-will in Baltimore Co., etc. Comments: cc: charles.Kucera@honeywell-tsi.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks, A pre-dawn excursion through the far northwest corner of my atlas block in Baltimore County today (4/17) produced my first singing WHIP-POOR-WILL of the year (a new Balt. county bird for me). It was singing on the north side of the powerline path, about 200 yards east of the Hilton Rd. entrance to Patapsco Valley State Park, just southeast of Catonsville. It began singing at precisely 5:42 a.m., and rendered many bars of its well-known song. The morning chorus of cardinals, titmice, wrens, crows, and towhees also produced my first singing WOOD THRUSH (2), WHITE-EYED VIREO, and OVENBIRD of the year, in the same general area. Also thought I heard Common Nighthawk, but couldn't be sure. A walk through the All-Saints Convent a bit later provided a flyover MERLIN. Then, a brief stop at the Foxhall horse farms yielded an EASTERN MEADOWLARK flying over the grass. At the end of the day, a two-hour walk with Charlie Kucera through the environmental area at UMBC produced the following new campus arrivals: PURPLE MARTIN, BARN SWALLOW, HOUSE WREN, GRAY CATBIRD, and COMMON YELLOWTHROAT, along with a NRW Swallow, a Hermit Thrush, and a calling Barred Owl. The bluebird box that Charlie erected by the storm-water management pond on St. Patrick's Day had a full nest in it a week ago, and this evening the nest held two blue eggs. Stan Arnold Glen Burnie blackrail@earthlink.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================