It is with great joy that on this Father's Day I can announce parenthood
on behalf of the Osprey pair on our Tunis Mills platform.  Details of the
behavior of both adults made it totally clear that their first hatchling has
emerged from the egg.  The first few attempts at feeding have been
fascinating to watch.  We believe there is also a second egg.
    By some strange coincidence, the family that we documented in 1999 (the
first to successfully use our platform) also hatched very late - in fact the
hatch took place on June 20th that year.
 
    Getting back to Atlas work last week, the first serious time spent in a
previously un-atlased Talbot Count block yielded sightings of 59 species
with 16 of them confirmed.  Lots of fledglings around right now.
    In my home block an hour of patience on Friday morning finally was
rewarded with five successive calls from a Prairie Warbler, calling from the
cut-over woods along Gregory Road.  Chats, White-eyed Vireos, Towhees,
Common Yellowthroats, Indigo Buntings, Field Sparrows and Blue Grosbeaks
were calling from the same field, but it was the Warbler that I had sought.
I had heard them in there on May 23, but had missed them on subsequent
visits.
    Also on Friday a Worm-eating Warbler was singing repeatedly along
Copperville Road near my place.  This bird even cooperated enough to provide
good and easy viewing from the road.   This was a new species for my 'home'
block.
 
Les Roslund

Talbot County
Easton MD 21601