Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 13:16:52 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Gail Mackiernan Subject: Still great at Rock Creek, DC 5/11 Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Hi all -- You have already seen Denise Ryan's post about the Mourning Warbler, which was the highlight for us of another great day. The numbers of Yellow-rumps are continuing to decline so the diversity is improving -- that is, you have a better chance to actually see a non-Myrtle when you look at a bird! A big push today of Wilsonia warblers and also, thrushes are in (finally), as well as first Acadian flycatcher for us. Birds seen and heard in the usual spots include: Warblers: Bay-breasted (2), Black-and-White (12), Black-throated Blue (20), Black-throated Green (6), Blackpoll (15), Canada (5), Cape May (1), Chestnut-sided (5), Cerulean (1), Kentucky (1), Magnolia (10), MOURNING WARBLER (1, male Maintenance yard), Myrtle (~60), Nashville (2), Northern Waterthrush (1), Ovenbird (8), Parula (20), Palm (1, western), Redstart (10), Tennessee (2), Wilson's (3), Yellow (1), Yellowthroat (12). (23 spp). Others of interest: Yellow-billed Cuckoo (6), Baltimore Oriole (4), Scarlet Tanager (8), Cedar Waxwing (~100), Swainson's Thrush (8), Veery (3), Great Crested FC (3), Acadian FC (1), Eastern wood-pewee (1), Ruby-throated Hummingbird (1), Red-eyed Vireo (30), White-eyed Vireo (2), Bobolink (1, dog run), Field Sparrow (1), LINCOLN's SPARROW (2 together, dog run). The Mourning Warbler had been found earlier (see Denise's post) and we heard about it as we entered the Maintenance Yard. Luckily after some time, we managed to see it fairly well, a lovely male with an extremely blue-gray head, very handsome! It will be interesting to see how long this great "run" continues at Rock Creek. certainly the unsettled weather and early morning fog is contributing to the concentration of birds. A strong cold front could break the chain of good days, one of the best weeks we've had at this great migratory trap. Gail Mackiernan and Barry Cooper Silver Spring, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================