Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 13:32:42 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Pete Webb Subject: Very late Rough-legged Hawk in Allegany County MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend with the Kirschbaums in Western Maryland, escaped the rain back east, and saw an unusual rapter on Buskirk Hollow Road off Dan's Rock Road. We drove to the no-trespass gate and listened for possible sparrows in the field beyond the gate, but got the hawk instead. It matched the Sibley adult female light-phase bird illustrated, with perhaps a slightly stronger eyeline and and light patches near the ends contrasting with darker wings overall, especially strong contrast on the underwings. Otherwise the bird looked pretty much the same as the illustration in the book. Haven't checked with the Yellow Book yet, but it seems quite late for one of these birds to be here. Apologies to Jim Stasz, who asked us what we'd found and we both were considering the more expected species and completely forgot to mention the bird of the weekend. Sorry. Other highlights included two Henslow's Sparrows and a nicely posing Grasshopper Sparrow at Combination Road, Cerulean Warblers at three locations, heard-only Golden-winged at Mt. Nebo WMA (where Jim had seen both G-Wing and heard Blue-winged), Willow and Alder Flycatchers, heard-only Upland Sandpiper at the sewage plant, posing Red-headed Woodpecker, a Prothonotary Warbler singing across the water at Youghogheny Reservoir in the northwest corner of the County, and Henslow's and Savannah Sparrows and Bobolinks at various sites, and the nice scenery and weather. On a negative note, Jim reported that the Roth Rock road is now gated off with numerous recently installed "NO TRESSPASSING" signs all over; apparently a change of ownership from the birder-friendly people who had it as recently as last year. It seems like all the privately owned and even many publicly owned scenic overlooks are being posted "YOU CAN'T COME HERE ANY MORE!!!". And judging by the amount of trash (including drug needles) at the Yough. Reservoir, which is still open, I suppose the trend will continue. The "trashy" folks are spoiling it for the rest of us, sad to say. Pete Webb Baltimore County, Maryland, USA pew ~at~ niroinc.com (work, M-F 830-5) pwebb ~at~ bcpl.net (home, after 6) ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================