Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2002 06:35:55 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Frank Powers Subject: House Wren! MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Our first-of-the-year HOUSE WREN has visited our neighbor's yard this morning (fortunately). That chattering, irrepressible, bubbly song is best heard from a distance of no less than 30 yards. Boy, is this one exhuberant! Sometimes, you just want to say, 'calm down; she'll be here soon.' Still, it's nice to have them back. Over there. Last night, at Lock 7 on the C & O Canal, Glen Echo, there were 3 pairs of adult geese, 2 of whom had 6 goslings apiece. Guess the other 2 were standing by, just to help out. Down in the creek leading from the canal to the river were another pair, with at least 2 goslings (may have been more; it was too dark to see them well). After being seriously hissed at (these males would scare the fangs off a rattlesnake) as I passed by, they hustled their little darlings into the canal and put on some speed heading in the opposite direction. On my way back, I over-took them and saw that the first two pairs of adults, swimming front and back, each had their 6 goslings between them. The little fur balls were a gas, struggling to keep up with mom & pop, bobbing all over the place, but still keeping up a serious pace. The other two chick-less adults were bringing up the year, either acting as guards or guardians in case somebody tried to slack off the pace. Good training to avoid the foxes that must surely patrol the canal (the 4-legged kind). What a gorgeous sunset, then rising full moon, different shimmers of light off the waters! It doesn't get any better than this. ============ Frank Powers Glen Echo, MD Montgomery County mattfp@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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================