George, et. al.

During my time at home over the holidays (12-23-04 to 1-2-05), I was
fortunate to observe a nice flock of rusty's (briefly) using the scrub-
shrub wetland behind our house (Jug Bay area).  I estimate the flock's sex
ratio was about equal, but this memory is anecdotal, I never actually
counted sexes.  UNLIKE the red-wings and other allies, I have never seen
the rusty's at our feeders, or anywhere else here other than this swamp.
Seeing the flock was curious because I have not noticed a large flock of
them before until this year (however that may be due to unfamiliarity with
their habits, or bad timing, or both!).  Most often, I only see small
numbers (2-10) or individuals of rusty's here.  The flock consistently
came by late, just before dusk, and hung around only briefly (a minute or
two) before dissapearing- presumably to roost in the marsh for the night.
It would be VERY easy to miss seeing them, or misidentify them if I had
not taken care to look closely, because we often have many red-wings do
the same thing (during the southerly migration in fall the red-wing flocks
can be very large).  I think many of the rusty's that I saw over the
holidays were probably from a specific flock, more or less, based on their
pattern when I observed them.  They varied from as few as ~20, to a high
one afternoon when I counted 48.  I was able to see them most days when I
took care to look, all but one afternoon, I think it was 4 out of 5 days.
The other days I was birding elsewhere or not at all.  I have not looked
since then, so I don't know if they are still around and following this
pattern.  I also wondered where they went in the day!

Jeff Shenot
Croom