Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2002 12:31:21 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: bposcove Subject: Re: Baltimore County spring migration notes Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Tim: This is an excellent post. Thank you, Ben Poscover >===== Original Message From Maryland Birds & Birding ===== >Hey everyone, > >This is Tim Carney from the Baltimore Bird Club. I just recently met Matt Hafner after I had joined the Yahoo! Groups Teen Birder mailing list. Matt and I went birding on July 10 and he found me five lifebirds (Caspian Tern, Least Tern, Bank >Swallow, Prothonotary Warbler, and Blue Grosbeak) and we managed to score 76 species in less than five hours. I think that's pretty good for mid-July! Matt is an excellent birder and I look forward to going out birding again with him this week or >next weekend. We were supposed to go to Bombay Hook today, but the rain spoiled our plans. Oh well, maybe there will be a rarity there next weekend that wasn't here this weekend. > >Anyway, the purpose of this post is to tell you a little bit about my recent birding in my hometown of Rosedale. From the first day of April until May 23, I did some hardcore birding (and a lot of banding) at my home in Rosedale and my school, CCBC >Essex (Essex Community College). I was about five feet away from an Ovenbird on several occasions, two feet away from a Blue-winged Warbler, got to watch my favorite N. American bird, the Blackburnian Warbler (a spring male!!) for 20 minutes as he >sang and ate a winged insect about ten feet above my head (first one for the area, too!!), got several lifers and several new birds for the area, and discovered what is only the third Cooper's Hawk nest in Baltimore County. > >I even had a records system. I typed the species in the left column of a spreadsheet, and made the next 31 columns very very narrow. I typed the dates of a 31-day month (1 - 31) in each of the narrow columns. If I saw a bird on the 16th, I would >highlight "16" in the same row as that bird. If I heard the species only, I would write a tiny "H" next to the date. I am an obsessive lister! > >Even though I was birding as early as April 1, I did not began recording daily sightings until April 22. These species were seen before April 22: > >Canada Goose >Mallard >Red-shouldered Hawk >Red-tailed Hawk >Killdeer -- new for yard >Ring-billed Gull >Rock Dove >Mourning Dove >Red-bellied Woodpecker >Downy Woodpecker >Northern Flicker >Blue-headed Vireo >Blue Jay >American Crow >Carolina Chickadee >Tufted Titmouse >White-breasted Nuthatch >Carolina Wren >Blue-grey Gnatcatcher >Ruby-crowned Kinglet >Hermit Thrush >American Robin >Northern Mockingbird >European Starling >Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) -- heard only >Palm Warbler (Yellow) >Black-and-white Warbler >Eastern Towhee >Chipping Sparrow -- heard only >Field Sparrow >White-throated Sparrow >Dark-eyed Junco >Northern Cardinal >House Sparrow >House Finch >American Goldfinch >Red-winged Blackbird >Common Grackle >Brown-headed Cowbird -- heard only > >This is a summary of my daily listings. I stopped birding at CCBC Essex when school was coming to a close, so the sandpipers were probably present much later than my "latest" date. Earliest and latest dates for migrants are given: > >Canada Goose: resident >Mallard: resident >Heron sp (probably a Great Blue): flew overhead on May 7 >Egret sp: flew overhead on May 13 >Turkey Vulture: occasional fly-by; April 22, May 3, May 4 >Bald Eagle: flew overhead on May 3 >Cooper's Hawk: April 24 - May 8. Discovered a nest at CCBC Essex, heard the "nest call" on May 4, and saw one bird land on it on May 8. A professor at the school informed me that there were two juveniles which flew off with the parents early >this month. >Red-shouldered Hawk: resident, breeds in woods behind my house >Red-tailed Hawk: resident >Greater Yellowlegs: May 6 - May 9 >Solitary Sandpiper: May 4 - May 10 >Spotted Sandpiper: May 1 - May 16. They breed at the college; I heard this is a good find for Baltimore County... >Semipalmated Sandpiper/Least Sandpiper/peeps: May 3 - May 10 >Killdeer: probably a year-round resident; several pairs breed at college >Ring-billed Gull: resident >Rock Dove (Domestic Pigeon): resident >Mourning Dove: resident >Chimney Swift: April 25 - May 23; summer resident? >Red-bellied Woodpecker: resident >Downy Woodpecker: resident >Hairy Woodpecker: resident >Northern Flicker: resident >Eastern Wood-Pewee: May 15 - May 17 >Great Crested Flycatcher: April 25 - May 20 >Blue Jay: resident >American Crow: resident >Fish Crow: flew overhead on April 24 >White-eyed Vireo: May 6 - May 9 >Blue-headed Vireo: mid-April - May 4 >Red-eyed Vireo: May 11 - May 20 >Cedar Waxwing: May 2 - May 20 >Eastern Bluebird: resident? >Veery: May 13 >Swainson's Thrush: May 10 - May 20 >Hermit Thrush: mid-April - May 1 >Wood Thrush: May 1 - May 15 >American Robin: resident for most of year >Grey Catbird: summer resident; first one on April 22 >Northern Mockingbird: resident >Brown Thrasher: April 23 - May 16 >European Starling: resident >White-breasted Nuthatch: resident >Carolina Wren: resident >House Wren: summer resident; first one on April 22 >Blue-grey Gnatcatcher: mid-April >Northern Rough-winged Swallow: May 4 - May 9 >Barn Swallow: summer resident; first one on May 3 >Ruby-crowned Kinglet: mid-April - May 4 >Carolina Chickadee: resident >Tufted Titmouse: resident >House Sparrow: resident >American Goldfinch: resident >House Finch: resident >Blue-winged Warbler: May 2 - May 3 >Nashville Warbler: May 3 - May 14 >Northern Parula: May 7 - May 12 >Yellow Warbler: May 2 - May 17 >Chestnut-sided Warbler: May 4 - May 20 >Magnolia Warbler: May 1 - May 22 >Black-throated Blue Warbler: May 1 - May 22 >Yellow-rumped Warbler: April 2 - May 15 >Black-throated Green Warbler: April 30 - May 7 >Blackburnian Warbler: May 15 >Prairie Warbler: May 1 - May 8 >Palm Warbler: mid-April - May 3 or 4 (forgot date) >Bay-breasted Warbler: May 18 >Blackpoll Warbler: possibly on May 8, definitely on May 15 - May 23 >Black-and-white Warbler: mid-April - May 20 >American Redstart: May 7 - May 23 >Ovenbird: April 22 - May 20 >Common Yellowthroat: April 30 - May 23 >Canada Warbler: May 17 - May 18 >Wilson's Warbler: May 13 >Song Sparrow: resident >White-throated Sparrow: winter resident; last one on May 13 >Dark-eyed Junco: winter resident; last one during mid-April >Savannah Sparrow: May 1 - May 5 >Chipping Sparrow: early April - May 16 >Field Sparrow: early April >Eastern Towhee: resident, but VERY common in mid-April >Scarlet Tanager: May 18 - May 23 >Rose-breasted Grosbeak: May 11 - May 12 >Northern Cardinal: resident >Baltimore Oriole: possibly on May 4 >Red-winged Blackbird: resident >Common Grackle: resident >Brown-headed Cowbird: resident > >Also, I did some birding at Cromwell Valley and Loch Raven. Highlights included Baltimore Orioles (very beautiful), Orchard Orioles, Yellow Warblers, Palm Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Northern Parula, Indigo Bunting male bathing in sunlight, >Warbling Vireos, Ruby-throated Hummingbird female, Solitary Sandpiper, Willow Flycatcher, Blue-grey Gnatcatchers nesting, Eastern Bluebirds, Pileated Woodpecker calling, Wood Thrushes, Red-eyed Vireos singing, lots of Bobolinks, American >Goldfinches, Black-and-white Warblers, very visual Red-winged Blackbirds, Tree Swallows, Barn Swallows, Eastern Towhees, Mourning Doves, Mallards, and of course the commoners (Blue Jay, crow, etc). > >Tim Carney > >======================================================================= >To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com >with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey >======================================================================= ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================