Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 15:15:11 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "Frederick W. Fallon" Subject: Looking for owls! MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Ospreyers - As you probably know, the second MD-DC Breeding Bird Atlas is underway. Breeding evidence for all species is sought block-by-atlas block thru-out the state. "Blocks" are about 3 miles on a side; some counties, incl PG, Howard, and Montgomery, further specify location by quarter-block. One family especially hard to atlas is the owls, being secretive by day and calling only sporadically at night. A searcher might pass quite near a resident owl yet miss it altogether unless it happens to call. Nor do owls always respond to an imitation of their call. Better luck is had if you are fortunate enough to live within hearing distance of a pair of owls, and sleep with your windows open - eventually you will hear them calling. So then, if you come across any owls - Gr Horned, Barred, Screech - please make those observations available to the atlas. If you are not registered as an atlaser, the easiest way to do this is to go to the PG County Atlas web site - < http://home.earthlink.net/~fwfallon > . If your sighting is in PG, bring up the county map, click on your location, and read the block name. Then click on the e-mail link and report your "sighting", including date. If you are in a county other than PG, you can still click on the list of counties and report to that county coordinator via the link provided. Best is to hear the owl twice from the same location 5 or more days apart, so if you can, try to get a repeat hearing. Please also ask any friends and relatives who live in the country to keep their ears open and tell you about any owls they may hear. Every owl report is potentially valuable to the Atlas program. Thanks for keeping this in mind during your birding. Fred Fallon Bowie MD PG Coordinator, MD Breeding Bird Atlas ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================