I arrived on Mount Pleasant Drive in Laurel just before noon today to 
find Dan Haas parked by the electrical transmission tower where Monk 
Parakeets are engaged in building a stick nest.  He had seen the 
parakeets a few minutes earlier.

After about ten minutes I hadn't seen or heard any parakeets, so I 
drove off to Laurel to get some lunch, and Dan had to leave 
also.  When I returned to Mt. Pleasant Drive at 12:35 p.m., three 
parakeets were on and around the nest.  Once they flew briefly over 
the road, shrieking loudly, and perched in a bare tree.  Then they 
returned to the transmission tower.  A local walking a dog said that 
the birds regularly sit in trees along Mt. Pleasant Drive.

It's not clear to me what sexes the birds are, and whether what we 
have here is a "pair and a spare."

Mike Bowen
Montgomery Bird Club
Bethesda

D.H. Michael Bowen
8609 Ewing Drive
Bethesda, MD  20817
Telephone: (301) 530-5764
e-mail:  dhmbowenATyahooDOTcom

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