Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 07:59:47 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Rick Sussman Subject: Re: woodies out back - more novice excitement MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 3/10/2004 8:56:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, slagjet@COMCAST.NET writes: As long as novices are not being sneered at, I saw my first-ever wood ducks, 3 pair, today from my kitchen window. WOW are they stunning to behold. Lee-Ann, No sneering here. Of all the birds I have ever seen, Wood Ducks remain my absolute favorite! The have so much to offer; male and female are both beautifully patterned (yes, the female is beautiful in her own subtle way, not like the "in-your-face" colors of the male though), both are rather skittish birds, especially when they first come back, making them sometimes difficult to observe and a good challenge to your "sneak-up" skills. They have a unique set of vocalizations, especially when suddenly flushed (sort of an EEEEK, like they've been discovered), they have a fascinating life history, being cavity nesters in riparian woodlands (one of my favorite birding habitats), and they usually come back to our area about the time of my anniversary in March, so I have come to associate them with romance! And the young, which hurl themselves from the nest, sometimes as high as 60 feet up, with bold abandon, have a very high"cute" factor. So, WOW, barely captures my feelings toward these birds, but when you see the pair in good light on a sunny spring morning, yeah, WOW does kinda say it all! Glad you're enjoying the MDOsprey group. Keep posting... 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================