Date: Sun, 14 Sep 2003 18:17:50 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Janet Millenson Subject: Late breeding? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I'm still seeing lots of fledgling Cardinals being fed by their parents, beyond what I recall as typical for mid-September. I get the impression there's anecdotal evidence that this year many birds have nested later than usual, but it's unclear if this is because (1) their early attempts failed due to the cool, rainy weather, or (2) the resulting bumper crops of insects and plant seeds made conditions favorable for rearing additional young, or maybe (3) both. Or perhaps 2003 isn't atypical at all, but now that we're doing the Atlas we pay more attention to young birds! You scientists out there -- is there or will there be hard data to support any of these guesses? Thanks. Janet Millenson Potomac, MD (Montgomery County) janet@twocrows.com ------------------------------------------------------------------ "Look at the birds!" -- Pascal the parrot ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================