Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 22:09:35 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "George M. Jett" Subject: Black-crowned Night-Heron - Yard/County Bird Comments: To: SMAS Comments: cc: Miliff@aol.com, Jim Stasz MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Folks Last night at 10 PM, while on our deck listening to the migrant nocturnal thrushes calling, a single Black-crowned Night-Heron (BCNH) began calling as it flew toward the house. I was startled. "Black-crowned Night-heron", I said to Gwen? Of course I called back. The bird began to call more often, and circled around the property calling to me. It called, I called. This lasted for maybe a minute, then it turned toward the west. It may have been coming from a marsh 3/4 mile south of the house where Barred Owls have been active the last two weeks. BCNH was my county "bitch" bird. Several people had reported it in the last three years. Even Jim Stasz had this species in the county. Why not me? They use to nest in Charles Co. Now they are scarce, and I have never found one in three decades of birding here. Somewhat shocked and in denial, I went in the house and played recordings of both Night-herons to refresh my brain. About 10:15 PM I went back outside to hear the Whip-poor-will and Barred Owls calling. The BCNH returned from the south, and called another couple times as it flew northeast, heading toward the Mattawoman Creek area. Hopefully, this species will return to breed during the Atlas project. I plan to check the Mattawoman, and the wetland south of the house during the Atlas season. The thrushes that were going over were lots of Wood, a couple Swainson's, and a single Veery during the time we listened. Also, a Yellow-billed Cuckoo called during our deck stint. Tonight we dodged another tornado, so there was not much birding on the deck. I wonder what will be my next pleasant surprise. Enjoy nature. George ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================