Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 08:09:38 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Rick Sussman Subject: other sightings Comments: To: voice@capaccess.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi all, Sighted in Ashton, Montgomery County, Saturday, April 27, along Tucker Lane; 2 singing male Black-throated Green warblers, a pair of Yellow-throated Vireos with the male singing, a pair of Louisiana Waterthrushes appearing agitated and one carrying nesting material. Many N. Parulas, Prairies, C. Yellowthroats. Ovenbirds singing from deep in the woods. Yesterday, (Monday, April 29) I stopped by Layhill Park on the way in to work, to check the small cattail stand there for bitterns. As I got out of my van, a SBJ flew up into a small tree, showing white outer tail feathers. Hmmm, white eye ring, streaked breast, slightly notched tail. VESPER SPARROW! It then flew to a larger tree near the parking lot, where another bird sat next to it. I thought for a moment that there might be 2, but the other bird turned out to be a SAVANNAH SPARROW! The Savannah didn't stay long, but the Vesper remained for some time, allowing me nice views. Alas, no bitterns... Here at home in Ashton, this morning I had singing males of both oriole species, and as a pair of bluebirds has finally begun nesting in my box, a pair of (late on the scene) Tree Swallows thought they had found a vacancy. When one flew down to alight at the entrance, the female bluebird flew out, and the male flew in from a nearby tree to defend their nest site! This bluebird nesting is very recent, since just this weekend, after a month of my evicting House Sparrows from the box. Persistence pays off... Rick Sussman Ashton,MD warblerick@aol.com 301-221-6868 ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================