Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 13:34:51 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Rick Sussman Subject: Sunday Nov. 3, Layhill Park Comments: To: voice@audubonnaturalist.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi all, A very fine morning of birding at Layhill Park, though the Purple Finches were not seen. I got there about 7:30 or so, and found Lydia Schindler and Linda Friedland already there and birding along the edge of the south soccer fields. We walked the weedy fields just west of the soccer field, finding the birds a bit sluggish in the frosty shrubs. We did have a few White-crowned Sparrows, Field Sparrows and White-throats and Song Sparrows, along with Red-tailed Hawk, towhees, goldfinches, Carolina Wren, and some other regulars. Moving to the south "sparrow fields" we were joined by Rob Hilton and Lisa Shannon, just as Lydia found a very nice FOX SPARROW. Shortly after they arrived we heard crows mobbing something unseen, which turned into a pair (sitting together!) of gorgeous Great Horned Owls perched in a maple tree. We watched them for quite some time until they got tired of the crows and flew off in different directions. We found one later as we followed the mobbing crows through the fields. A Brown Thrasher was a nice find, as was Eastern Phoebe. Rob had a flyover Palm Warbler. As we headed back out of this area we looked again in the spot where we had first found the owls, and there was one perched again! Lots of pretty sparrows in the shrubs near the soccer fields, with many Swamps mixed in. After Lydia and Linda left, Lisa, Rob and I found 3 Palm Warblers very near the parking lot, and as we stood there we began to see small numbers of Chipping Sparrows, which increased eventually to more than 50 (?). A pair of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers flew in and landed on the trunk of a Bradford Pear, about 25 feet from us.A Pileated flew by. Then we began to see hawks. Red-tailed Hawks soared over in small numbers, as did Red-shouldered Hawk, and Sharp-shinned Hawks flew over singly, one harassing a crow for the longest time. A single American Kestrel circled over, and a juvenile Coopers flew by (which Lisa called) as Rob and I tried to turn it into a N. Harrier, and landed in a tree. Both vultures were seen in small numbers also. Every time we made a move to the cars to leave, something else good would fly over, making it difficult to get home at a reasonable hour. Thanks to Lydia, Linda, Lisa and Rob for the fun morning! Rick Sussman Ashton,MD warblerick@aol.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================