Hi Everybody,

We have finally entered that ephemeral two-plus month window of opportunity to confirm the vast majority of Maryland and DC's nesting birds. By way of example - last week we had several "talking trees" i.e. noisy Hairy Woodpecker nests with vociferous nestlings, there is a femlae hummingbird putting the finishing touches on her nest on a limb outside our son's bedroom window, it's hard *not* to see grackles, starlings and robins with mouthfuls of food, waterfowl are parading their broods, and some species have even commenced second broods, e.g. cardinals and Carolina Wrens. Once you are tuned-in to breeding behavior it is hard to avoid observing it at this time of year, even for virtually all of the birds that have yet to become officially "safe" in terms of their spring migration dates. 

It is also still a decent time to consider night birding because screech-owls are acting quite territorial (I had one whack a tape recorder held above my head on a 16 May big day), fledgling Great Horned and Barred owls are becoming vocal now (good recordings of both are on the Stokes bird song guide CD), and nightjars should be especially vocal during the next full moon on 2 June. 

Remember that although many of the common species may already be confirmed in your home blocks that you may be able to add new incidental records in blocks on the Eastern Shore, southern PG county, Washington County, and Charles County (if George Jett doesn't snap all of them up this year). Consult your atlas handbook or the atlas website (www.mdbirds.org/atlas.html) for county coordinator contact info. Thank you to all atlassers and future atlas contributors, you are what makes this project succeed.

Good Atlassing, 

Walter Ellison
MD-DC Atlas Coordinator - MOS
23460 Clarissa Road
Chestertown, MD 21620
phone: 410-778-9568
e-mail: 

"A person who is looking for something doesn't travel very fast" - E. B. White (in "Stuart Little")