Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 07:38:55 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Hans Holbrook Subject: Point Lookout 11/26 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Yesterday (11/26) I arrived at the point around 9 AM. Marty Cribb was in= the parking lot and had been there since sunrise. At 8:45 roughly, he h= ad 4 TREE SWALLOWS fly by. I had only been there for a few minutes when = I put my scope on a swallow over the picnic grounds that had a 'light' ru= mp. Marty and I moved up along side the pond for a closer look. By 9:30= we were sure this was the bird in question and called Patty Craig and Ji= m Stasz. We watched the bird for another 2 hours, it came and made four = or five passes over the pond during that time. By 10 AM a BARN SWALLOW s= howed up, and the two flew back and forth over the picnic area until abou= t noon. The swallow was smaller than the Barn Swallow. Dark forehead, buffy thro= at that turned more rusty around the collar. Undersides were light. Bac= k, wings and tail were dark blue with white streaks on the back. Rump wa= s lighter at the top and faded into a dark rust closer to the tail. Tail= had a very square look to it. I have consulted half a dozen books here at home and I am still not sure = of age or subspecies of the bird, but I am convinced that it was a Cave S= wallow. The Swallow Guide only has on picture of an adult, and I have fo= und very little on descriptions of young birds. Sure hope somebody can g= et a picture. Other birds around the point included RED-THROATED LOONS, GANNETS, all th= ree SCOTERS, a few GREATER SCAUP, lots of FORSTER'S TERN and BONAPRTES GU= LL, one ROYAL TERN, half a dozen FOX SPARROW were in the picnic area, and= a CLAY-COLORED SPARROW was across from the boat ramp as Patty Craig ment= ioned ealier. Hans Holbrook Columbia, MD =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D =========================================================================