Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2004 17:30:46 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "George M. Jett" Subject: Signs of Spring & Allen's Fresh Comments: To: SMAS Comments: cc: Miliff@aol.com, BlkVulture@aol.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Folks I think the increased daylight stimulates singing. Gwen would know. Dark-eyed Juncos and House Finch's began singing about Wednesday of last week when it was warmer. Both sang again today. Both light and dark morph Rough-legged Hawks were still present at Allen's Fresh today. Lovely animals to see in the county. Other raptors present were several Bald Eagles, Redtail and Red-shouldered Hawks, American Kestrel, and a Cooper's Hawk. No Chipping Sparrow but lots of Savannah's feeding next to the road in good light. One Eastern Meadowlark, also. I am hopeful the shots will good. The car is a pretty good bird blind sometimes. Not for the dark Rough-legged Hawk though. Tomorrow I check Cobb Neck to see what is there. Not enough snow cover to bring the field birds to the road side is my guess but the weather is suppose to be good for birding. I will also be looking for large flocks of geese. Nothing on the eastern side of the county today but lots of small flocks over Allen's Fresh. Where were they going? George ----- Original Message ----- From: "Fred Pierce" To: Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2004 9:58 AM Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Signs of Spring > More singing. First Cardinal song I observed was Jan 11, again this morning. > Titmice are singing more - I notice sunny days like today really set > them off. A bit of House Finch song on the 26th. Not nearly as much > activity as Jan. 02 though. Lots more warm days and singing recorded > that year. > > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > Fred Pierce (DNRC)- fpierce@avialantic.com > Mid-Atlantic Aviation on the Web - http://www.avialantic.com > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Maryland Birds & Birding > > [mailto:MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM]On > > Behalf Of Norm Saunders > > Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2004 8:26 AM > > To: MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM > > Subject: [MDOSPREY] Signs of Spring > > > > > > It certainly doesn't appear that any warming trends are on the > > horizon but > > it's now 42 days since the first day of winter and that means we're > > enjoying approximately 21 minutes more daylight per day than back on > > December 21. > > > > Is this enough to trigger physiological and behavioral changes in > > the birds we see? > > > > Well, here are a few possible indicators: > > > > 1. We've been hosting as many as 5 Fox Sparrows at our Worcester > > County feeders since Christmas. This weekend, for the first time > > this winter, we > > heard them singing. > > > > 2. Red-winged Blackbirds have been around all winter. Today I > > heard the > > first "conk-a-ree" of the year. > > > > 3. Yesterday Fran and I were watching gulls feeding on the rocks > > where the old railroad bridge used to come ashore in Ocean City, > > next to the Coast Guard base. We noted two Herring Gulls that > > appeared to be in full > > breeding plumage--pure white heads, bright yellow bills, very > > strongly marked gonydeal spots. > > > > 4. Finally, we spent all day yesterday riding around Worcester, Somerset, > > and Wicomico Counties looking for birds. We didn't turn up a single Snow > > Goose all day long. Are they already flocking up and moving up the coast? > > > > Anyone else have some (welcome) signs of spring to report??? > > > > Norm & Fran Saunders > > > > ================================= > > Norman C. Saunders > > Colesville & West Ocean City, MD > > marshhawk@att.net > > > > ==================================================================== > > === > > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > > ======================================================================= > > ---------------------------------------------------- > > This message has been processed by Firetrust Benign. > > > > ====================================================================== > = > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > ======================================================================= > ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================