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Subject:

Orchard Oriole on Nest/Canada Warbler in Yard - Baltimore City

From:

Elise Kreiss

Reply-To:

Maryland Birds & Birding

Date:

Sun, 30 May 2004 22:10:35 EDT

Paul and I had a pleasant morning at Gwynns Falls Park.
This is a manicured little park near Woodlawn used by the
community with some good, tall trees, including sycamores
and tulip poplars, and a lot of brush on the edges.   The
Gwynns Falls runs through it, and there is often a fisherman
or two there.  Where it borders Woodlawn Cemetery, there
is some dense brush, sometimes mud flats and a little overgrown
peninsula.    There are a number of small willows along the river.
It's not a place where you'd expect much, and I'm often pleasantly
surprised.

The park is very reliable for Warbling Vireos, and we went there
to soak up more of the song.   We heard an Orchard Oriole, and
followed a first year male to a locust tree where a female was
sitting on a  woven nest.  You could see the yellow top of her
head, and sometimes a dark beak and eye.  The tail stuck up
in back.   We found a second nest in the same tree, and were
finally able to observe an Eastern Kingbird on the nest about
the time a second Kingbird landed in the tree.

Birds seen/heard:

Great Blue Heron
Black-crowned Night Heron
Turkey Vulture
Canada Geese with goslings
Wood Duck with ducklings
3 Spotted Sandpipers
Rock Dove
Mourning Dove
Chimney Swift
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker
Great-crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Warbling Vireo
American Crow
Tree Swallow
Rough-winged Swallow
Barn Swallow
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Yellow Warbler
Chipping Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Indigo Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Orchard Oriole
Baltimore Oriole
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Among the pleasant surprises in our yard this weekend
was a Canada Warbler with a prominent eye ring, yellow
in front of the eye, and a faint gray bit of necklace.  A
second surprise was a Cardinal nest.  When sweeping the
walkway in front of our house, I found myself closely observed
by a pair of cardinals.  I found their nest in a none-too-stable
pine bough above the walkway steps, just above the point where
I'd find it a nuisance and clip it off.  You'd never see it if you
weren't looking for it.  The contrast of the female's head against
the dark green makes it possible to see her.  We don't stare,
of course.

Elise Kreiss
Baltimore City