Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 22:07:54 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "George M. Jett" Subject: Peregrine Falcon in Waldorf - Yard Bird Comments: To: SMAS Comments: cc: Miliff@aol.com MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Folks Sunday afternoon around 5 PM I took a break from some EPA work I was doing. I step out of the garage and starred at the sky for a few minutes. I first saw a Black Vulture (BLVU) soaring pretty high. I put the binos to make sure it was not anything else. I watched the BLVU for a few minutes. As I watched the vulture, a Red-shouldered Hawk soared into the thermal at a higher plane. I took my binos down for a look see with my eyes. The Red-shouldered Hawk was hard to see in the deep blue sky without binos. I put binos back up to face to study the crescents in the primaries, shape, etc. As I watched the Red-shouldered, much to my surprise and pleasure, a very large falcon soared into the same thermal. The bird was easily as large as the Red-shouldered. I yelled for Gwen "Peregrine". She came too late and missed the bird. It quickly soared north and out of view. A new yard bird. Maybe # 153. I am too tired to remember at the moment. I continued to watch. Seven Turkey Vultures drifted into view, much closer that the first three species. Next an immature Bald Eagle, then two adults. The adults were playing tootsies and calling to each other. Not a bad 15 minute break. Back to work. While I am at it, new yard year birds observed from the house on Saturday, May 3 were Yellow-billed Cuckoo (calling at 9:30 PM), Great-crested Flycatcher, Eastern Kingbird, Northern Parula, Common Yellowthroat, and Hooded Warbler. The pair of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks were still present both weekend days. They have been around since Tuesday. One male, one female. Enjoy migration. George ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================