Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2003 08:33:27 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Rick Sussman Subject: Atlasing story MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi all, I had an interesting occurance yesterday while atlasing. There is a large, old sycamore tree on the property of an old farmstead in one of my 1/4 blocks, which always has something interesting near it or on it to watch. Last week I noticed a number of holes in the branches rather high up, and saw a flicker at one of the entrances. Sadly I also saw a good number of juvenile Starlings in the same area. A pair of E. Kingbirds has a nest nearby, and chase anything that comes close. Also last week I heard and saw a Great-crested Flycatcher in the tree, so was hoping to confirm this yesterday. While searching the tree yesterday I noticed a bit of snakeskin on a branch very close to one of the holes, flapping in the breeze. AHA! I thought, GCFL nest (they are big users of snakeskins in their nests)! I got out my scope for a better look. When I focused it on the closest hole, however, what I found was not one but a pair of black rat snakes. One was in the hole with just its head poking out, the other was just emerging from the hole, and I watched it for a while, fascinated. As it came out it began rubbing its head on the branch where the remaining cast-off skin was, continuing its shedding process. Evidently that's where the skin came from that I had first seen. This pair of snakes was about 35 feet up in the tree, and all I can hope is that they were there for Starlings and not Flickers... Rick Sussman Ashton,MD warblerick@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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================