Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 08:59:02 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Janet Millenson Subject: Cavity rester (sic) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Late Saturday afternoon (4/19) I was birding along the C&O Canal towpath just south of Swain's Lock, around Mile 16. There were lots of Palm Warblers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, plus a couple of dozen other species in the air, the trees and the water. Of course like any careful birder I used my binoculars to check out promising tree cavities too. Inside a large hole about 30 feet up in a tall tree across the canal I discovered a Black Rat Snake basking in the sun. I've seen these snakes climb trees before, but this one seemed unusually high off the ground. A passer-by suggested that the snake was probably lying there digesting the previous occupants of the cavity! Janet Millenson Potomac, MD (Montgomery County) janet@twocrows.com ------------------------------------------------------------------ "Look at the birds!" -- Pascal the parrot ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================