Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2003 08:26:05 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Bonnie Ott Subject: Re: backyard bird MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT (( The head and chest were all yellow and it had greyish wings with white wing bars. That is all I saw before it flew away. I want to say it is a Blue-winged warbler, but it is early. Can anyone help me?)) Generally the early warblers to arrive are Pine, Louisiana waterthrush, Yellow-throated and Palm. Yellow-rumps are also around but many have spent the winter . From your description it may have been pine, they are tremendously variable in their shades of yellow. Some I have seen are so drab they show almost no yellow at all but some can be very bright. The breast streaking also seems to be variable. I also find habitat and what level the bird was located helpful. Pine are mid-upper range birds and large and slow moving (as warblers go). Palms are often on or near the ground and they bob their tails. Neither waterthrush or y-throated fit your description so I'd rule those out. The Yellow Book is the best reference to check on arrival and departure dates. Bonnie Ott Howard County Field Trip Chair Ellicott City, MD bonnie1163@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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================