Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 11:29:21 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Gail Mackiernan Subject: Rock Creek Park today 5/15 Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Hi all -- Rather cool, dark and breezy first thing at the ridge (picnic areas 17/18) and it was obvious many birds had taken advantage of the great migratory weather last night, no numbers were down. That included the Yellow-rumps, which are finally down to minimum numbers. However with some digging around we managed a decent list, albeit not as enjoyable as yesterday! Highlight was a nice Black-billed Cuckoo over the bridle trail, which we watched for some time eating hairy caterpillars. They have really been common this spring! Birds seen and heard (quite a few heard): Warblers: Blackburnian (1), Blackpoll (~20), Black-and-White (1), Black-throated Green (1), Canada (4), Chestnut-sided (5), Louisiana Waterthrush (1), Magnolia (12), Myrtle (~30), Northern Waterthrush (1), Ovenbird (6), Parula (5), Redstart (8), Yellow (1), Wilson's (1, dog run), Yellowthroat (10). Others: Yellow-billed Cuckoo (4), Black-billed Cuckoo (1), Acadian Flycatcher (2), Great Crested Flycatcher (3), Wood Pewee (1), Swainson's Thrush (4), Veery (1), Scarlet Tanager (8), Cedar Waxwing (~150), Baltimore Oriole (4, one carrying nesting material), Common Loon (flyover). We didn't see any of Clive's Gray-cheeked Thrushes, although we are approaching peak time for this species. 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================