Date: Tue, 14 May 2002 13:48:44 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "Frederick W. Fallon" Subject: May Count in lower PG MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit While we did not get the impressive numbers of migrant warblers as some others did, we did find some good birds on Saturday's May Count. Starting at Merkle WMA pre-dawn, we missed Screech Owl this year but did hear a Barred, and continued to hear them thru the day. The Driving Tour Bridge yielded N W'thrush and a surprise Willow FC, as well as a family of eagles. Elsewhere at Merkle a Magnolia, Bl-thr Blue, and Blackpolls completed the list of strictly migrant warblers. As usual Kentucky's were plentiful, but LA W'thrush eluded us here and all day. Blue Grosbeak, M'lark, and G'hopper Sparrows were present but in much reduced numbers, and even Prairie Warblers were scarce. The long-estabished Y'throated W's seem lamentably absent this year - are they gone for good? A lingering ad. Wh-cr Sparrow lent a handsome monochromatic touch. Eagle Harbor added Royal Tern, GBB Gulls, and a Semi-p Plover on the beach. Aquasco Farm came thru with a flock of ~ 20 Bobolinks, sev Orchard Orioles, and a Lincoln's Sparrow sharing a puddle bath with a Field; as both flew up in different directions our eyes fortunately followed the Lincoln's as it landed on a nearby mound of debris and let us enjoy an unusually prolonged view. Evening return to Merkle added 2 Dunlin to the more expected pond shorebirds, and later, N'hawks circled overhead to close the day. Without any real rarities, and so few migrants, we were surprised when we totalled up the species and got 110 for the day. Fred and Jane Fallon Bowie fwfallon@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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================