Date: Mon, 13 May 2002 19:28:58 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Steve Sanford Subject: Britannia's Last Stand & Dickcissel MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit This is a report on visiting British birder Tony Eveleigh's final day birding in the central Maryland area, plus a Dickcissel in Baltimore County, and a link to pictures of the Western Kingbird at Fort McHenry. Over the weekend, on his own, Tony found himself a Barred Owl, a Blackpoll Warbler, and a Yellow-billed Cuckoo at Great Falls and vicinity to add to his life-list. Then Sunday evening Tony went across the street from his daughter's apartment at dusk to the Johns Hopkins University stadium in hopes of picking up a Common Nighthawk while the stadium lights were on. Just as he arrived there was a great downpour of rain. Despite the rain, he did indeed see a single Nighthawk circling around the stadium! Shortly afterwards a custodian of the stadium (of whom Tony had been unaware) came up and asked: "Now that you've seen the Nighthawk, is it all right if I turn out the lights?" This morning, Elliot Kirschbaum and I birded Cromwell Valley Park near Towson with Tony. The number of Baltimore Orioles there was amazing! By good fortune we ran into Jim Meyers, who monitors the birds at the park closely. While I took a break, he led Tony and Elliot to an unexpected life-bird bonus for Tony: Great Horned Owl. We had hoped for Bobolinks there, but they didn't show up. We went on to Western Road near Thornton Mill Road, where there were about 20 rather secretive Bobolinks. A little later we got good looks at male Bobolinks on Cuba Road north of the closed bridge. I didn't clarify whether Tony had seen Bobolink in England as an accidental, but he said they only get females or immatures there, so the males were certainly new. Also on Western Road he added Cooper's Hawk to his life-list. Then, of course, there was the most unexpected bonus: A singing Dickcissel by the big new house up the hill from Bosley Methodist Church on Thornton Mill Road. This is just west of I-83 between the Shawan Road and Belfast exits. We saw the bird moving from shrub to shrub on the right side of the house. If it stays around, it will probably require some luck and a scope to see it. Then we joined Gail Frantz in early afternoon to look for some more life-birds she staked out for Tony. Alas, the nesting American Kestrels on Longnecker Road did not materialize. But the Grasshopper Sparrow on Piney Grove performed magnificently, posing like a star in a beauty pageant on various fence posts and wires. And, as an unexpected bonus, along came a Savannah Sparrow to be Tony's last tick. Except, who knows what he might have picked up between there and the airport, where he's off back home to England tonight? It turns out I misunderstood when I said earlier that Tony had gotten 150+ lifers. Actually it is approximately 120 lifers and 160 total species. It's an interesting indication of how many of our vagrants get over to Britain. Of course, some of the birds he's seen here are common over there, such as Common Loon, Mallard, and Barn Swallow, not to mention (yuk!) Starling and House Sparrow. He will compile a final list and send it to me. I will probably post that on Osprey since a number of folks seem to have been following his adventures with interest. Speaking for myself, and I presume Elliot, Gail, and Marian Dodson, birding with Tony has been a great experience. He is a delightful birding companion, and an excellent birder. I think we have gotten at least as much enjoyment and excitement from introducing him to our birds as he has gotten from seeing them. It also has refined our knowledge of what birds can be found at this wonderful season and where to look for them. Finally, I have posted some pictures of the Western Kingbird at Fort McHenry, and of Tony, Gail, Elliot, and me at: http://www.santanager.net/KingTony.html Steve Sanford tanager@bcpl.net Randallstown MD Baltimore County ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================