Date: Sun, 5 May 2002 13:06:05 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Stan Arnold Subject: Patapsco/Elkridge Area MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hello Again, Things have been heating up in the atlas block, as migration nears its peak. A Wednesday (1 May) early morning jaunt in Patapsco Valley State Park, north of the river (Balto. Co.) produced perhaps my last local HERMIT THRUSH of the season, and several singing HOODED and BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLERs. In fact, by Friday (3 May) this section of the river valley was dripping in Black-throated Blues, where "beer-beer-beer-beer-beeeeeee" became the most common sound heard. My first ACADIAN FLYCATCHER was heard this day on the Howard Co. side of the river. I only had had one species of sparrow that day (White-throated), until visiting the Foxhall Horse Farm where I picked up CHIPPING, FIELD, SAVANNAH, and four WHITE-CROWNs. The part of my atlas block in Anne Arundel County has been no less than exceptional. I used to bemoan the fact that AA County had no shorebird habitat, but yesterday I found five species in one of the Halethorpe Ponds, and this just may be the beginning. On Thursday (2 May), previously seen BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON and SWAMP SPARROW were welcome sights, as the safe dates approach. A mass of scores of CEDAR WAXWINGs made their way through the treetops in the woods, being only my second sighting of this bird in Maryland this year. Yesterday (4 May) was terrific, as Joan DeCarli and I toured the ponds. A pair of GREAT EGRETs and a pair of GREEN HERONs both graced the smaller of the two ponds, near the railroad tracks. An OSPREY and an adult BALD EAGLE both flew overhead. Here also, a YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO called, a female BALTIMORE ORIOLE was seen carrying nesting material, and my first YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER of the year (about a month late!) was seen in a (where else) Sycamore Tree, and proceeded to serenade us for 20 or 30 minutes after initial sighting. We were also able to get the scope set up on a fairly close singing male PROTHONOTARY WARBLER for stunning views. A YELLOW WARBLER was new for the area, and joined the Redstarts, Parulas, and Yellow-rumps in the wonderful mid-day chorus. In the woods near the ponds, a group of nearly 20 RUSTY BLACKBIRDs flew from mudflats to trees, and the eastern end of the larger pond, with its muddy shallows yielded the following shorebirds: GREATER YELLOWLEGS (1), LESSER YELLOWLEGS (2), SOLITARY SANDPIPER (22), SPOTTED SANDPIPER (2), and LEAST SANDPIPER (2). Two more Spotted Sandpipers were seen along the Patapsco River, nearby, and we left the area with a nice view of a SWAINSON'S THRUSH. This morning, 5 May, an early morning visit to the Belmont Conference Center (private) in Howard Co. with Sue Probst produced my first ORCHARD ORIOLE of the year, a SAVANNAH SPARROW, and a LINCOLN'S SPARROW, surprisingly, my second in a week. Too many migrants--too hard to get work done. 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================