Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 22:22:14 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Joel Martin Subject: Halethorpe Ponds, Balto. Co., 5/18 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit This morning I forced myself out into the rain as penitence for missing Steve Sanford's fantastic Patuxent North Tract field trip yesterday. Halethorpe is not Patuxent but it's increasingly proving its potential. I was hoping for thrushes and a push of late-migrating warblers and was not disappointed. Highlights were 3 close-up Bay-breasted Warblers and 3 Wilson's Warblers among 13 warbler species including Chestnut-sided, BTB, Canada and N Waterthrush. An estimate of 50-75 Blackpolls may be conservative -- they were everywhere and their songs filled the woods all morning. There is a very high density of Yellow Warblers here, too. One spot along the river seemed to be a thrush magnet, and I saw at least 3 Swainson's and 1 Gray-cheeked. The Gray-cheeked sang to clinch his ID, and at one point hopped up onto the same log with a Swainson's for a great comparison. As I was leaving I heard what I think was a Black-billed Cuckoo, very close, but never saw it. Joel Martin Catonsville, MD jcdlmartin@aol.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================