Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2003 16:07:27 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Catherine Carroll Subject: Western Kingbird, 7-03 Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Persistance finally paid off this afternoon and I saw the Western Kingbird at Fort McHenry. During my other visits I had been looking in the wrong area. I first found him perched alone on the "nest" tree, and there was no sign of the Eastern Kingbird. A few moments later there was a small flurry of activity and calls when the E. Kingbird flew in and the WEKI flew off to the split rail fence. It was like the changing of the guard. I followed him around for a bit and watched him perched and flycatching. When I walked back to the "nest" tree to find the EAKI she flew in and appeared to be bent over a nest. After a short time she flew off again. By this time the WEKI was back on his lookout perch at the top of the tree. Finally, the EAKI came back, another flurry of activity with some calls and the WEKI flew off and was flycatching above the stone wall of the fort directly behind the tree. The EAKI settled down. I knew where she had settled into the leaves but could not see anything. I moved for a better view and then could see her long tail with white edge extending out of the nest. At no time was there a second EAKI in view. They looked like a pair to me. Wouldn't it be great if this became an annual visit? Such a pretty bird. Cathy Carroll Baltimore, MD clcarroll@voyager.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================