Date: Fri, 14 Jun 2002 14:06:50 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Stan Arnold Subject: Atlas "adoption" question, etc. Comments: cc: "Charles A. Kucera" , Karin Readel , Sandy Parker , Paul Kreiss MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks, I'm sure most would recognize today as being an abominable time to get out and do some birding, but motivated by some closing safe dates, I donned my gortex pants, put on some wading boots, and didn't forget the umbrella as I headed out the door to see what the atlas block had in store on this miserable rainy day. I was far from disappointed with the results. First, an atlas question. I know that if a host bird is seen feeding a young cowbird, then both the host and cowbird are confirmed. What if a Yellow Warbler is seen feeding a noisy young starling? Does that also confirm both species? And now, the news. I started out in the drizzle this morning (Friday, 6/14), driving around the Avalon, Orange Grove, and Glenartney sections of Patapsco Valley State Park, with little of interest seen, other than several Wood Thrushes hopping around in the road. From the park it was off to UMBC where things were much more interesting. When I exited the car, the resident BLUE GROSBEAK was singing his heart out, and I gave him a quick look in the binocs as I walked to the storm-water-management pond. I have found BROWN THRASHERs to be scarce as hen's teeth in my atlas block, but this morning I found that the singing male from a couple days ago now had a mate with him, so I will be looking for some nesting activity in the future. The female RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER was peering from her nest cavity, where she has been seen on many occasions, and a GRAY CATBIRD was seen with nesting material, finally confirming that abundant species. The best find there, though, was a BANK SWALLOW, swooping down on the small pond, probably a visitor from the colony in the next block over. As I was walking along the edge of the woods, I heard a lot of bird chatter that sounded like a young something. A female YELLOW WARBLER flew back and forth, grabbing a bug, then taking it to the source of the noise. Ah, I thought, feeding young! I finally saw the noise source and was a bit surprised: a young cowbird. No, wait, lots of speckling, long bill-- a Starling! Ugh, I thought, what a wasted effort for this energetic little bird to be feeding a young starling. ******** Last night I spoke on the phone to Brian Sykes, who said that cormorants and Great Egrets were still hanging around the big Halethorpe pond in southern Baltimore Co. Hmmm, I realized I had less than a week before safe dates for Great Egret end, so now might be my chance to pick it up as an atlas tick, if I could find one in my area on the AA Co. side of the river. So, from UMBC I drove to the Soapstone Creek in AA Co., and then hiked back to the Patapsco River. I took my camping chair with me, and parked it along the south bank across from Herbert's Run, where I sat with a good view of the river to the east. I sat for 30 or 40 minutes with umbrella up to ward off the intermittant showers, watching an Osprey come cruising upstream, and then a young Black-crowned Night Heron make a short sortie across the stream. A few rough-winged swallows pretty much capped the excitement. Time to move on to the two smaller Halethorpe ponds, where I've made some of my most significant sightings of the year. Today would be no exception. As I approached the larger of the two ponds, I first noticed an adult Black-crown on the shore, and then a bit further along was my prize waiting for me: a GREAT EGRET standing in the shallows along the pond's northern shore. I walked through the thick foliage along the pond's edge, eventually flushing the long-legged wader. I came into view of a nest box that Charlie Kucera and I had put into place about a month ago. Charlie had a couple extra boxes laying around the house, and we decided what the heck, let's try for some Prothonotaries. The box was put in some very thick muck at the edge of the pond, shaded by overhanging trees. I had never checked the box since it was installed, but today I threw some logs down to help me through the muck, and gave it a rap. Hmmm, not a hollow sound: something was inside. I knocked again, then opened the hatch. There was a nest of fine dry grassy vegetation. Four eggs were in the nest; they were bigger than the eggs of a House Wren, but smaller than those of a bluebird. They were more spherical than egg-shaped, maybe 1.0 to 1.2 cm in diameter, and were glossy with a creamy background and totally covered with extremely fine brownish-red speckles. I wasn't sure what I was looking at, but the singing male PROTHONOTARY WARBLER somewhere overhead raised my suspicions, and my hopes. I backed away from the box, till it was barely in sight, and sat and waited, hoping for a parent to come warm the eggs, but 30 minutes produced no adult, and I was tiring of the rain, so I left. Having no reference on bird's eggs, once home I decided to give Dave Perry a call, since I knew he had had Prothonotary eggs in a box at the Patuxent Refuge. He got out his bird egg reference book, and what he read was music to my ears. Everything he read about Prothonotary Warbler eggs mirrored what I saw in the nest box. So now, once again, I am aglow in the thrills of the Maryland Breeding Bird Atlas project. All on a miserable rainy day! 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================