Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2003 14:30:43 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Michael Bowen Subject: Ash-throated Flycatcher at Ft. McHenry Comments: cc: Helen Patton , Marshall Iliff Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Well, first thing to say is that Marshall Iliff was right! This bird is an Ash-throated, not a Great Crested. There really wasn't "a horde of birders" present between 10:30 and 11 a.m., when the bird first was spotted today. Someone whose name unfortunately I don't know (Jim Peters probably does) had the bird perched in one of the biggish trees along the seawall and pointed it out to Jim, who hailed Helen Patton and me. Dennis and Jane Coskren soon joined us. After getting only brief scope views of it, the bird flew into Jim's little "wildlife refuge" that is reached through the maintenance yard near the main gate of Ft. McHenry. We couldn't find it again in the scope at this distance, but I relocated it very close to a feeder with a blue baffle that's just by the middle trail along the ridge - just past the small shelter containing chairs. The bird stayed fairly low in small shrubs and the larger trees between the trail and the marsh for at least 20 minutes, plenty of time for us all to see it. It was very tame, giving us excellent views, and at one point came within 5 feet. It called -- sort of a "pip . . .pip . . .pip" at regular intervals. The breast was light gray fading into light yellow on the belly. There was noticeable rufous on the folded primaries and on the upper tail. It had a definite crest. Jim went off to borrow a digital camera from NPS personnel. Took us some time to figure out how to use this device, since none of us owns one. Eventually I was able to take numerous pictures. With luck some of them will come out, perhaps even be in focus, and help document the bird. When we left FM just after noon, I couldn't re-locate Jim, so do not know whether or not there were in fact any useful pictures. Just before we left, several Baltimore County birders turned up and I understand they definitely saw the flycatcher. Let's hope it stays around. I see from a subsequent message that Ft. McHenry is not open this Friday, and of course the weather forecast for Saturday is not very good. Many thanks to Jim Peters not only for finding this particular bird, but for all he has done at Fort McHenry. Mike Bowen Montgomery County Bird Club, MOS D. H. Michael Bowen (Mike) 8609 Ewing Drive Bethesda MD 20817-3845 Tel/Fax: (301) 530-5764 e-mail: dhmbowen@yahoo.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================