"Low point of the day was removing an enormous Deer Tick"

Deer ticks are never enormous.  This was likely a "dog" tick.  But deer
ticks are worse this year than last, and I thought they were bad last year.
 So it is very important to check for them during and after birding.  Deer
ticks are tiny and hard to find.

J. Steven Huy
Middletown, MD, USA
Project Owlnet
www.ProjectOwlnet.org


-----Original Message-----
From:   Bill Hubick [SMTP:]
Sent:   Sunday, 25 April, 2004 00:21
To:     
Subject:        [MDOSPREY] Washington County Atlasing

Hello all,

I see that spring has reached western Maryland as well -- how lush and
alive everything is already! I atlased from before dawn until well after
dusk on Saturday (4/24) in my Washington Co. block (Smithsburg SE), picking
up a total of ELEVEN atlas tics (and one deer tick), as well as 6 new birds
for the year. I'm now quite exhausted, but still winding down from an
exciting, beautiful day.

Some highlights:
Osprey  - 1-2 (one flyover on the AT; then one unexpectedly working my
little reservoir!)
SPOTTED SANDPIPER  (doing the silly Spotted Sandpiper dance)
BARRED OWL  - 1
Eastern Phoebe - 1
COMMON RAVEN - 1
GRAY CATBIRD - 1
NORTHERN PARULA ~ 4
PRAIRIE WARBLER - 2
LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSH - 4-5
Dark-eyed Junco - 2 holding out in the hills

New or upgraded Atlas tics:
Canada Goose - ON  (at least four pairs with the female on the nest, the
male on vigilant guard duty).
AMERICAN WOODCOCK - X  (still a couple lonely fellas peeanting in them
there hills)
Belted Kingfisher - X  (what great little routines they have: hunt from
favorite perch, plunge-dive!, off to the eating perch, repeat)
Common Raven - X
Carolina Wren - X
BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER - NB  (absolutely abundant! I was rarely out of
earshot of one or more. I found 3 different pairs building nests and
picking lichen from the tree trunks for the supreme fairy-nest camouflage.
Could have probably found a dozen more.)
Northern Mockingbird - X
European Starling - P
Red-winged Blackbird - NB
Common Grackle - X
House Sparrow - NB

In other news:
Too bad it's not the Breeding Mammal Atlas today. The best sighting of the
day was a mother Red Fox standing guard at her den while four kits
sunbathed, rolled around in the dirt, and pounced on one another and her!
Absolutely delightful to watch :) Noted Eastern Tiger Swallowtails, a lone
Mourning Cloak, Skunk Cabbage everywhere, Dutchman's Breeches up; Raspberry
coming back in force; Jack-in-the-Pulpit getting started; oaks and
yellow-poplar trying to catch up with the maples; Poison Ivy growing all
too rapidly. Low point of the day was removing an enormous Deer Tick
(before it latched on, thankfully!). A small creepy price to pay for such a
day!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Bill

Bill Hubick
Linthicum, Maryland

www.billhubick.com

=======================================================================
To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to 
with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey
=======================================================================

=======================================================================
To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to 
with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey
=======================================================================