Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2002 09:10:22 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Paul Woodward Subject: McKee-Beshers WMA 10-20-02 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit 20 October 2002 Spent 3 hours here during the middle of the day, mainly around the impoundments, but I also checked some of the upper fields and looked over the river at Sycamore Landing. Not as productive as Friday with only 38 species. Added Chipping Sparrow(1) and Savannah Sparrow(1). Most of the other interesting birds I detailed in my previous post. Other observations of note were another Red-headed Woodpecker in an area I seldom visit, 3 Palm Warblers(couldn't id to subspecies), 10 Cedar Waxwings- a species I haven't seen often this fall, 18 Chimney Swifts (my latest record for here by 3 days, 6 Tree Swallows(4 days from my latest record) and 17 Rough-winged Swallows (my latest record here, but not for Maryland). The swifts were foraging overhead like they weren't ready to leave the area yet. The Tree Swallows were hunting over the marsh vegetation like it was a typical spring day, but on Friday morning when the temperature was in the 30's they were foraging differently. There were about 35 birds flying in a very tight circle just above the floating duckweed in the large impoundment. They were flying in a clockwise path and would often dip their bills in the vegetation, presumably picking up what insects were present. I have seen this behavior here on very cold April days when the swallows are getting ready to nest. When I returned to the impoudments later when it was warmer the swallows were high overhead feeding in their normal fashion. Paul Woodward Fairfax City, VA 22032 grackling@worldnet.att.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================