Dear MD Osprey --

Yesterday's balmy weather pulled some big snapping turtles out of their
muddy burrows at Lilypons. We saw one that had to be 2 ft. across!

We didn't get there until about 11:00 a.m., so our timing wasn't optimal,
but the big find was 3 pairs of herons among what looked like 6 nests under
construction in a small great blue heron rookery at the far west edge of the
property, in a big sycamore. The three pairs were standing in partially
constructed (one complete looking) nests. Very exciting! The tree is located
on the far edge of the Monocacy River just above the bridge on the west edge
of the Lily Pons property. The birds were clearly paired off and standing on
the nests. Is this early, or what?

Other birds:

1 fox sparrow
1 black crowned night heron
20 mallards
100~ canada geese
2 belted kingfishers
10 cardinals
1 swamp sparrow
5 red winged blackbirds
2 red shouldered hawks
2 red-tailed hawks
1 merlin
9 carolina chickadees
2 white breasted nuthatches
8 great blue herons


-- 
===========================
Lori Brown
web developer & troublemaker

It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to have to paint it. - Steven Wright