Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 20:56:38 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Charles Vaughn Subject: Great migratory bird count day MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Polly Batchelder and I birded Somerset Co. for the migratory bird count. The morning was spectacular with a warbler fallout I've never seen before in Somerset Co (or Wicomico). Within a 100 yard stretch bordering a road we had: Northern Parula, 1 Yellow Warbler, 7 Yellow-rumped Warbler, 9 Blackpoll Waarbler, 8 Black-and-White Warbler, 2 American Redstart, 1, Northern Waterthrush, 3 Blackburnian Warbler, 1 Wilson's Warbler, 2 Magnolia Warbler, 1 Tennessee Warbler, 1 Common Yellowthroat, 5 That's 41 warblers. We spent almost 4 hours in the area, during which time it poured rain for a while. It took us a while before we realize the variety of birds that were actually present. Few birds were making any noise and the stretch was a very dense line of planted arborvitae and other evergreens, with a another stretch of dense Russian olive. We finally stopped in this area because the birds were holding up our birding day! So many places to bird, so little time! Also present was a male Bobolink, a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, a Swamp Sparrow, Blue Grosbeaks, Orchard Orioles, a breeding pair of Green Herons, and other locally expected birds. I went back to the area early this morning to find only two migrant warblers; the rest had moved on. Those of you on the Western Shore should note that this type of bird activity is VERY rare in this area. Until yesterday I never experienced a major warbler fallout in Somerset Co. - that's in 32 years I've birded here. Of course it was probably an every day (in Spring) experience for Jim Stasz when he lived here. Charlie Charles Vaughn 1306 Frederick Avenue Salisbury, MD 21801 410-742-7221 essc@comcast.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================