Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 11:13:18 -0700 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Lynette Fullerton Subject: Crow[n]sville In-Reply-To: <4d.2f7968e1.2bf5161b@aol.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Hi all, Just got back from a very entertaining lunch-hour walk in the park (Crownsville - right across from the MD Renaissance Festival). The first thing I saw when I got out of my car was a very rowdy gang of crows hanging out on one of the ball fields, looking for all the world like a bunch of leather-clad bikers spoiling for a fight. They were strutting around, flapping their wings, sort of leap-frogging each other. Then they took off en masse. Soon after, I made my way down the paved trail to a wooded area. I made it about a hundred feet before stopping. All around me there was movement - a Chipping Sparrow on the ground in front of me, a Cardinal to my right, a Common Yellowthroat, Pewees singing, an Ovenbird, Red-Eyed Vireo, and a few birds I couldn't quite see well enough (no binoculars - the pair I usually keep in my car got used this weekend and ended up back in the house; I keep forgetting to take it back to the car...) to ID. But no woodpeckers this time - other times I've seen/heard 4 without moving an inch. Soon the crows zoomed through and things kind of got quiet for a while. I also saw several Tiger Beetles during my walk. They were brilliant, even without the sun. Most of them didn't stop long enough or close enough for me to get a good look at them, but of the few that did, some had six whitish spots, and some had just two. Is the marking different on each one, or does the number of spots help identify what species they are? Just curious... The best part came as I was heading back to my car. It was a female Orchard Oriole, pulling at the strings of a soccer goal. Nesting material! But now I'm back behind bars...em, windows (no bars) and cinder blocks, for a few more hours. Good birding to be had here, actually, if you spend enough time on the grounds. Bluebirds, Cedar Waxwings, Northern Rough-Wing, Barn, and Tree Swallows, and the other day I saw an Eastern Kingbird and a Baltimore Oriole. Good birding! Lynette Fullerton Odenton, AA Co., MD l_fullerton_1999@yahoo.com ===== "The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware--joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware." --Henry Miller __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. http://search.yahoo.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================