Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2002 19:27:45 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Kurt Schwarz Subject: Howard's Big Sit Howard's Big Sit, alas, was not a very good one. We set a new low for species, only 39. The previous low was our first year, 1999, when we saw or heard 46 species, in heavy rain. I arrived at 6:50, with others joining in about 9:00. For a large part of the morning, we had a wider variety of doughnuts than bird species. Ten birders eventually joined in. Everybody went off in other directions by 15:00. By 16:00, boredom and another shower set in. I took the hint and went home. The rather grim total, usual suspects only, was: Double-crested Cormorant - 1, fly-by Great Blue Heron - 1, which perched in a tree in plain sight for 2 hours Great Egret - 1 Turkey Vulture - 1 Canada Goose - who counted? Mallard - maybe a dozen Cooper's Hawk - 1 Red-shouldered Hawk - 1 Killdeer - 2, fly-by Mourning Dove - 3 (!!!) Chimney Swift - 12 Belted Kingfisher - 2 Red-bellied Woodpecker -1 Downy Woodpecker - 1 Northern Flicker - 3 Eastern Phoebe - 1-2 Blue Jay - a lot! American Crow - 2 definite, another dozen "species" Carolina Chickadee - 1-2 Tufted Titmouse - 1-2 Carolina Wren - 3-4 Eastern Bluebird - 1 American Robin - 6 Gray Catbird - 1 N. Mockingbird - lots! All over the place European Starling - 5 Cedar Waxwing - 10 Yellow-rumped Warbler - No count made, but apparently abundant Common Yellowthroat - 1, male Eastern Towhee - 2-3 Field Sparrow - 1-2 Song Sparrow - no count made Swamp Sparrow - 1, heard White-throated Sparrow - at least a dozen Northern Cardinal - no count made, less than a dozen Red-winged Blackbird - 20-30 House Finch - no count made Am. Goldfinch - no count made We gotta think of a name for our circle! Kurt Schwarz Howard County goawaybird@comcast.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================