Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 23:24:42 +0000 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Hans Holbrook Subject: Bicknell's/Gray-cheeked Thrush 5/9 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed I spent the morning at Middle Patuxent and the returned in the afternoon. This afternoon I happened upon a thrush by marker #15. There are pines scattered through the area and a blocked off side trail. The thrush hopped up right in front of me about 15 feet away and perched on an open limb for about 30 seconds. I quickly realized it was of the gray-cheeked variety. Most of the lower mandilbe was yellow with just a bit of black near the tip, then as the bird turned and flew i noticed a very rusty tail, much like a Swainson's. Most all the Gray-cheeked Thrushes I have ever seen have tails that match their dull brown backs, exept for the 30 to 40 Bicknell's I saw while hiking the Appalachian Trail up in Maine a couple years ago. Now I know the best way to seperate the species is by call, but I am fairly certain the bird was a Bicknell's. I wasn't quite able to match Joel Martin's 20 species of warbler at Rockburn today but I came close with 19. Since I was there in the morning and the afternoon I may have some birds twice, so I'll just list the high from either or. Parula 23 Blue-winged 3 Nashville 1 Yellow 1 Chestnut-sided 7 Magnolia 9 Black-throated Blue 19 Blackburnian 1 Yellow-rumped 28 Black-throated Green 1 Blackpoll 12 Black-and-white 21 Redstart 24 Ovenbird 20 something Kentucky 1 Yellowthroat 32 Louisiana Waterthrush 3 Wilson's Warbler 1-3 (I encountered males three times spread far appart, I don't think they were same individual) Hooded Warbler 1 Other highlights included 3 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, 3 Yellow-billed Cuckoo, 1 Blue Grosbeak, 5 Swainson's Thrush, 6 Veery, 1 Swamp Sparrow, and 1 Lincoln's Sparrow. Hans Holbrook Columbia, MD _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================