Date: Tue, 7 May 2002 21:10:53 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Stan Arnold Subject: Baltimore Co. migrants, etc. MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks, All of my students were taking their Advanced Placement exams this morning, so I took a half day off from school, and enjoyed the thrill of migration in southwest Baltimore Co. I was on territory in Patapsco Valley State Park, starting along the powerline by the Hilton Road entrance during the pre-dawn hours. I was hoping that a few migrating whip-poor-wills would hang around for some nesting, but no evidence this morning. Nevertheless a flyover COMMON NIGHTHAWK was nice, and descending the hill into Glenartney, a singing KENTUCKY WARBLER was one of seven warbler species. I counted nine Black-throated Blues. Foxhall Farms Road (private) gave me my first singing PRAIRIE WARBLER of the year, and yet another LINCOLN'S SPARROW, my third in a week, each in a different county. A NORTHERN HARRIER flying low over the fields was a welcome sight. My last stop was a short hike along Herbert's Run, which feeds into the Patapsco River near the big Halethorpe Farms pond. While the scenery was trash-strewn, and the water reputedly quite poluted, the bird-life was nevertheless grand. I heard my first BLACKPOLL WARBLER of the year, and then saw a NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH, while listening to another one sing. A SWAINSON'S THRUSH was perched low in a tree, and along the powerlines nearby was my first singing WARBLING VIREO in the atlas block. As an afterthought, this past Sunday evening I was out with Charlie Kucera in Patapsco Valley State Park, near Gun Road, looking for turkeys. No luck there, but Charlie spotted a big knot about twenty feet up in a tree. This lump turned out to be a red-phased E. SCREECH OWL, and gave us great views. This is my first screech in the atlas block (NW quarterblock) this year. 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================