Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2003 12:00:01 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Joel Martin Subject: Vesper Sparrows in Baltimore County, Mears Farm MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I've been following Stan Arnold's reports from the new Mears Farm addition to Patapsco State Park in Catonsville, and had wistful hopes that the abandoned pastures there might someday produce Vesper Sparrow. This morning on my fist real visit I got lucky. I flushed a group of about 5 sparrows from a gravel circle where a barn used to sit; they flew up to the tops of some nearby trees, reminding me of Bonnie Ott's description of VESP behavior. Before I could get a positive ID they flew off toward some boulders in the pasture, but their appearance and behavior were definitely interesting. I walked slowly into the pasture and suddenly found a sparrow perched on a boulder in plain view. All the field marks were there: size, eye ring, "cheek hook," rusty wing patch, and white outer tail feathers. When the bird dropped down into the grass I approached it, and 5 sparows flushed. I'm certain that at least 4 were Vespers. This was a much-sought county bird for me. Also at the farm were Chipping, Field, Savannah, Song and White-throated Sparrows, and my first Brown Thrasher and White-eyed Vireo of the season. Earlier in the morning, at Stan's Anne Arundel County Halethorpe ponds I had 4 Rusty Blackbirds and first Blue-headed Vireo of the year, and numerous Palm and Yellow-rumped Warblers. Joel Martin Catonsville, MD jcdlmartin@aol.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================