Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2003 17:17:01 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Gail Mackiernan Subject: Birds and butterflies on Eastern Shore today Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Hi -- Barry and I had to go to Annapolis this morning and decided to continue over the Bay Bridge to check out some near-by sites on the Eastern Shore. The Central Sod Farm (John Brown Rd.) looks in great condition but despite diligent scoping we could only find about 20 Killdeer and a lone Lesser Yellowlegs. Maybe things will heat up later this month. At Terrapin Park, it was fairly quiet bird-wise. The best birds were probably a pair of Blue Grosbeaks with a small fledged young (almost tailess) -- maybe a second brood, as well as some Least Terns fishing just offshore and carrying small fish back to their nests (on the roof of the Food Lion on Kent Island? -- I think that's where the colony is). However, there was a good selection of butterflies, highlighted by a pristine male QUEEN -- the first either of us have ever seen in Maryland. He looked absolutely brand-new but assume he's a traveler from southern regions, borne on the south wind. Lots of Monarchs, Black and Tiger Swallowtails, Comma, Red Admiral, Questionmark, Least Skipperling, and other more expected species. The habitat looks splendid, especially in the restored meadow, and should yield lots of birds and butterflies in fall migration. Gail Mackiernan and Barry Cooper Colesville, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================