Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2003 09:54:09 -0800 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Clive Harris Subject: Cabin John Birds 29/30-3; D/C Cormorants on nests In-Reply-To: <114.211ef5a3.2bb7920f@aol.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Dear all I went for an early morning walk along the Canal next to Cabin John yesterday morning hoping to find some early returning La Waterthrushes or other warblers. There were none, although I did find a Swamp Sparrow in nice breeding plumage, not expected along the canal here and presumably passing through. On the river were Hooded and Common Mergansers. I spotted a group of Double-crested Cormorants roosting in some trees on an island in the river across from mile marker 8 on the canal. Further attention showed that some of them at least seemed to be sitting on what looked like nests. I went back this morning with my scope and found a total of 11 nests in 2 trees. 9 of these had at least one bird on or next to them, with 6 of these having a pair of birds. It seems really rather early for these birds to be trying to nest here but they did have a very settled look to them. A couple of the sitting birds were rearranging sticks in the nest, and two of the pairs engaged in what looked like courtship behavior. The sitting bird would stretch its neck out and open its mouth wide and then move its neck in a broad circular arc; its partner would then make some short lunges with its head and puff its neck out. I will keep an eye on these trees and let people know what develops. Was there an atlas report of D/C cormorants attempting to nest here last year? Regardless, these birds are in really fine plumage, clearly showing their crests and in todays rather dim light, some of them had almost luminous orange throat patches. Good birding Clive Harris, Cabin John, Md --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop! ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================