Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 12:28:38 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Elise Kreiss Subject: Tales from Fall Count: Leakin Park, Baltimore City MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Paul and I heard a Red-shouldered Hawk - - a real one this time - - and scanned the strip of sky we could see to try and locate it. One big bird sailed into view. . . only a TV. No, not a vulture; a juvenile Bald Eagle - - with an Osprey in pursuit! Had I fallen asleep and woken up on the Eastern Shore? It was a dreamlike fall count. Lots of branches, a few big trees covered with trailing poison ivy vines, and an electric power line, littered our path. We ran into a couple guys in hard hats with BG&E logos on their shirts. "Have you seen the pumping station?" one asked. "How big is it - what does it look like?" "Oh, about as big as a small row house." Paul and I looked at each other, "Nothing like that around here," we replied. They walked off, carrying stuff, looking tired. The sycamore was down in Winans Meadows which had held last year's Baltimore Oriole nest; a confirmation for our Atlas block. The large, decayed "bird tree" was down near the model railroad. This was a tree that always seemed to hold something, even on the deadest day. We had nice looks at a perching Grosbeak enjoying poison ivy berries, a little streaky red on its mostly brown breast, but found only a few warblers. We reached new heights of intrepidness in viewing these. Picture this - - we're working our way up a muddy, irregular path, none too wide. In front; at a not impossibly high level, in good light; flitting activity. Our best view is only a few feet away from a very active wasp colony to our right - big wasps - rapidly flying in and out of a small tree cavity. Maybe about head level. I'm picturing tumbling back down this path once they notice that we are here and decide to take exception. Meanwhile, we are tentatively approached by a small opossum. Ignoring both wasps and opossum, we found three Magnolia Warblers, one Chestnut-sided, and our one Bay-breasted Warbler of the day. We were lucky that the Bay-breasted had a trace of bay on the breast or we'd have been even longer in a productive but uncomfortable spot. We saw what looked like one big fluttering bird in a tree, which was revealed to be two Mourning Doves facing each other, their heads very rapidly moving up and down together as if one, wings fluttering. Following this, one bird mounted the other. This is very different from the Mourning Dove courtship which I've seen in my backyard, where one bird does the cooing and pursuing; one bird does the rapidly walking away part; except when halting, mesmerized by the cooing; and both usually end up distracted by birdseed and forgetting the whole thing. Good birding, and happy Fall Count, everyone! Elise Kreiss Baltimore City ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================