Date: Tue, 1 Jul 2003 13:08:28 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Stan Arnold Subject: Grasshopper Sparrows at BWI, etc. Comments: cc: Charles Kucera , Paula Warner MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks, It's a good time for getting out and getting some confirmations for the atlas, so I was out at the crack of dawn in the Relay CE block, in which I live. In early May I was quite thrilled to find GRASSHOPPER SPARROWs in a huge grassy field on the north side of BWI Airport in AA Co., viewed from an area called the Andover Overlook. I am even more pleased that these birds have continued there in force, despite two mowings of the field. This wet, but pleasant morning following another rain, had these birds out in great numbers, and there were easily two dozen singing, and I'm sure I saw at least five of them perched atop weedy vegetation or on the rails of the chain-link fence. One sat and sang not more than 30 feet from me, and was not particularly alarmed by my presence. And yes, I was able to confirm them, with a presumed female carrying food, and chipping, hopping along the fence rail probably to draw me away from her nest. A flyover hen WOOD DUCK added a new species for the block list, and will be counted as "Observed." Also present at the overlook were several singing FIELD SPARROWs, and in the past I've had two or three singing BLUE GROSBEAKs there, but they weren't seen or heard today. The Andover Overlook is along the BWI Trail, and is probably best accessed either by bicycle, or by parking at the Lindale Middle School on Andover Rd. (near Camp Meade Rd.), and walking the short distance up to the trail, and hiking it a half mile past the horse farm. Another option would be to park in the ball field parking lot next to the horse farm, and walking a short distance along Andover Rd. to the trail, and then south around the horse farm to the overlook. Later in the morning, I was able to confirm INDIGO BUNTING east of the hotel district off of Winterson Rd., with a female carrying food to several noisy youngsters. As of yesterday (6/30), CATTLE EGRET was still in the Ferndale area, with one flying over B&A Blvd, close to where Broadview Ave. crosses the RR tracks, just north of Huber's Bus depot. Sunday evening was productive as Brian Sykes took me around the Halethorpe Pond/Herbert Run area to look at some nests. We viewed an almost spherical and occupied RED-EYED VIREO nest about 40 feet up in a Sycamore Tree along Herbert Run, and also had a female INDIGO BUNTING sitting on a knee-high nest in plain view nearby. Brian showed me a photo of the two almost white eggs in this nest. These two nests were in Relay NW, while in Relay NE nearby we viewed a female RT HUMMINGBIRD sitting on her nest about 25 feet up in a Sycamore, and also looked at a CEDAR WAXWING nest, just recently vacated by the young. There's a lot going on out there. Stan Arnold Glen Burnie dy.dx@verizon.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================