Date: Mon, 8 Mar 2004 07:57:03 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Rick Sussman Subject: Montgomery County signs of spring Comments: To: voice@audubonnaturalist.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi all, Sunday March 7, a beautiful morning to be out, I went over to the Blue Mash Nature Trail, which is fast becoming a local favorite spot. Singing birds included many Red-winged Blackbirds, Song Sparrows, Field Sparrow, Eastern Towhee, and at least one FOX SPARROW. Walking here last week with Rob Gibbs, we talked about how very good the habitat looked for Wilson's Snipe and/or American Woodcock. Well, as I crossed the small "creek" right behind the landfill, I flushed 7-8 WILSON'S SNIPE from the wet spot between the fence and the trail. Shortly afterwards, I heard what I thought were swans from way up high, and looked up to see 2 flocks of TUNDRA SWANS (traveling together), between 27-30 birds each, brightly lit by the sun, flying high and calling, heading north in a great V. Ahhh, spring!! Saw a couple of high flying Cooper's Hawks, Red-tails, lots of vultures of both species, and the ponds there held a smattering of ducks, including Buffleheads, Hooded Mergs, 1 Redhead, lots of Ring-necked Ducks and Mallards. A pair of Redtailed Hawks have been seen more than a couple of times in the woods and flying above it as a pair, so possibly a nest somewhere. Rick Sussman Ashton,MD warblerick@aol.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================