Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2003 03:07:13 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Norm Saunders Subject: Re: Big Sit Results In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Bill Ellis asks: > I would love to hear an=20 > estimate of what proportion of the birds identified were seen=20 only > on-the-wing (not perched). I witnessed some of the=20 sightings, and > was more than impressed by some of the team=20 members' field ID > skills for warblers and other small=20 songbirds in flight, on a less > than bright day. OK - it was=20 more like a humbling experience. This is a question better aimed at Matt Hafner, Jim Stasz, Zach Baer, or Mark Hoffman. Last year Fran and I contributed coffee and donuts. This year I felt that I was able to contribute nothing to the effort and was as humbled as you (if not more so--I was there for a few hours longer than you). I'm reminded of a situation Fran and I ran into a number of years ago--we were attending the first or second annual Eastern Shore of Virginia Birding Festival at Kiptopeake and we had gone out behind the motel for an early morning stroll. We encountered Michael O'Brien so we stopped to chat. As we talked he never stopped calling out birds passing overhead to the guy right behind him with a clip board. You want to talk about humbling experiences... This guy with the clipboard didn't stop writing the whole time we chatted with Mike and we never felt we were imposing on Mike at all--talk about multi-tasking! Anyway, I hope that one of the principals will answer your question, Bill. My sense is that identification of passing migrants has been notched up a few levels by the release of Bill Evans & Mike O'Brien's new CD, Flight Calls of Migratory Birds. Thanks to that CD and some help from Matt Hafner, we were able to add a passing Dickcissel to our yard list in Ocean City this past year. Birding with Maryland's premier birders is a lot of fun but can indeed be humbling. Best, Norm =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D =========================================================================