Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2003 11:19:36 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Frank Powers Subject: Conkereee... MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Enjoyed my first cup of coffee this morning listening to the sound of a Red-winged Blackbird high in our maple tree. The one yesterday morning (first of the year) wasn't singing, just eating. Soon after, a female Hairy Woodpecker came down to the suet feeder, but interrupted by a female Red-bellied Woodpecker who occupied the other side of the same feeder. They kinda' stared at each other for awhile, with the Red-bellied showing greater staying power. Neither ate anything, and both soon left, to be displaced by at perhaps 3 different female Downy Woodpeckers, one at a time. I think they were different, but only by noticing that they each had different black spot #'s and configurations on the side of their outer tail feathers. Is that a legitimate way to tell one from another? One had only two spots; another had 3; the third had at least 4 spots, in irregular marks. These were joined by at least one Carolina Wren who didn't seem to care who else was on a feeder; it just went about its business munching away at whatever was handy. Common Grackles, Mourning Doves and European Starlings also fought over the food at various feeders. Flying overhead were Ring-billed Gulls and, somewhere, Canada Geese. In the trees down the street toward the C & O Canal, several male and female House Finches were singing away and moving quickly through the tree limbs, almost as if they were gleaning. As I was focusing in on these little fella's, a huge bird flew across my binocular view. Turned out to be a Pileated Woodpecker who flew to a snag near the house and a little later began drumming (I hope that wasn't on our upstairs window-frame, like one did last year). At one point, all the Cardinals, Chicadees, Juncoes, Song Sparrows and White-throated Sparrows showed a great deal of nervousness. Sure enough, a block away up the street was an adult Red-shouldered Hawk perched high in a tree, surveying the neighborhood. Beautiful, beautiful bird! Still, when I left, the robins were singing, the House Sparrows were calling furiously, and if it weren't for the weather reports of this evenings pending snow storm, I would have thought that spring is only 22 days, 12 hours and 45 minutes away. 'Til then, good birding (anyway), Frank Powers Glen Echo, MD Montgomery Co. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================