Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2003 19:47:30 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Matt Hafner Subject: Clay-colored Sparrow at Pickering, Eastern Shore notes MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit This afternoon, Zach Baer, Mike Burchett, and I found a Clay-colored Sparrow at Pickering Creek in Talbot County. The bird was 2/3 of the way down the lane from the main road in the hedgerow. Zach originally found the bird then lost it for a few minutes, but we refound it and watched it for about 5 minutes. It was a young bird with a buffy chest, depicted very well by Sibley. We couldn't refind the bird despite 30 minutes of searching. I still believe it is around though and probably in the hedgerow. The hedgerow is filled with White-throats, Songs, and some White-crowns. Oddly enough, the Clay-colored was the only _Spizella_ in the hedgerow. The impoundment was loaded with Swamps and Savannahs. Also present were 6 Greater Yellowlegs, 1 Lesser Yellowlegs, and 4 Pectorals. On Assateague this morning the rain was miserable, but the birds were pretty good. South of the ranger station in the oceanside brush, we ran into a rather large flock of birds. The flock was full of Myrtles, Songs, Fields, White-throats, White-crowns, and Ruby-crowns. We managed to find Indigo Bunting, Common Yellowthroat, Orange-crowned Warbler, and Prothonatary!!! warbler in the group. I thought this would be record late for Protho, but apparently Oct 27 holds that position. Other birds seen on the island were Redstart and Western Palm Warbler. Also of interest today was the Yellow-breasted Chat at the corner of Indiantown Rd and Rt 331 in Vienna. Matt Hafner College Park, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================