Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2003 16:10:17 -0800 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Mark Miller Subject: immature Bald Eagle with radio backpack transmitter at Patuxent MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Just returned from an evening bird walk at Patuxent. The most interesting thing I saw was an immature Bald Eagle with a radio harness backpack. I got several decent views of the bird and the harness, so I'm positive of what I saw. I know radios are used commonly to study Bald Eagles, so this observation is not extraordinary. But it was the first time I've ever seen a free-ranging wild raptor with a radio attached. I started wondering if it was a satellite transmitter. If so, perhaps somebody knows exactly which bird this was? Also saw an osprey, a brown thrasher, and quite a few eastern phoebes. Heard lots of toads calling, as well as pickerel frogs. The last notable observation: I thought I heard at least two gray tree frogs call several times. Sometimes I get a little confused between gray tree frogs and red-bellied woodpeckers, but these made none of the misc. calls that the woodpeckers insert between their rolling "churrrrrr"s. Plus the sun had already set (but it was still light). I only mention this because I thought, for some reason, that it was too early for tree frogs. Mark W. Miller Laurel, Maryland P.S. description of the eagle: huge bird large beak prominent neck when perched extremely piebald and "ruffled" looking soared with flat wings huge primary slots visible during flapping flight antennae jutted up and back at a 40 degree angle and was maybe 6-8" long? Base of pack was large and obvious. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - File online, calculators, forms, and more http://tax.yahoo.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================