MARYLAND BIRDLIFE

J^uLbtin of tke ^Maryland OrnitkoLoyicaL Society

sioj Bolton Street, Baltimore ij, -Maryland

VOL. .1 NOVEMBER - DECEMBER, 1945 NO. 5

NESTING OF GREAT HORNED OWLS

On April 29, 1945, about 3:30 P.M, as we were driving along at
the intersections of Cowpens and Providence Roads, Mr. Herbert Strack
noticed moving objects in a dead tree about twenty feet high and
about fifty yards from the road. "We '.immediately stopped and Investi-
gated and found it to be the nest of Great Horned Oivls with three
young. Billy McHugh found a Towhee that evidently had been brought
by the parent bird for £t»od* ‘ Mr, Crowder took a picture of the one
that was perched on the highest point while the two younger sat mo-
tionless in their nest. By the crows making such a noise and darting
back and forth, we surmised the parents were nearby.

On May 5, Willard Strack and I stopped to see and note the pro-
gress. At this time two of the young were perched on the highest
point. We found parts of a rabbit under their nest. We could hear
sounds that resembled a dog barking but knew it must be a parent owl
giving a warning signal.- -

On Friday, May 11, Mrs.. Kent and I. went out to see them. Nearby
was a Gas and Electric truck but the men had not noticed the owls.
They became very much interested in them also. We regretted very
much not having a camera or field glasses at this time for the birds
were so active and the positions were perfect for taking pictures,.

On Wednesday, May 16, Mr.. Btrack,. Mrs. Kent, Willard and I went
again at dusk and found one of the baby owls had fallen from the nest
and was backed up against the base of the stump with his wings out-
spread as if to attack. Patiently we moved closer and stroked his
head, then Mr. Strack got him to get on a limb and he carried him
about and then lifted him to a tree limb about eight fee from the
ground. About a week later we went again but they had flown.

Mrs. Herbert P# Strack

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AN EARLY SLATE-COLORED JUNCO

A Slate-colored Junco ( Junco hyemalis) that I saw In Hillsdale
pafck, Baltimore,, early on the morning of September 24, 1944, was an
earlier fall arrival than any I can find recorded for Maryland —
although Cooke, in ”Birds of the Washington, D.C., Region,- 11 notes a
September 14 arrival in an unstated locality. The bird I saw was so
dark in color that it must have been an adult male. No more Juncos
were seen in that area until October 8, at which time the real fall
movement began, very lightly.

. Hervey Brackbill

A FLOCK OF EVENING GROSBEAKS

On November 15, 1945, while working in the alley in the 1700
block between Bolton Street and Linden Avenue,, a chorus of unfamiliar
bird calls attracted our attention to a flock of about 50 Evening
Grosbeaks. The birds flew in from the south, alighted in the top of
a leafless elm tree for a brief minute and then, in waxwing fashion,
flew on uttering their shrill calls* The golden-brown plumage- and
conspicuous white wing patch made their identification unmi stake able «

Evening Grosbeaks are irregular winter visitors in the Baltimore
area, November 15 appears to be an early date for their appearance
in this latitude; it was a clear , cold day, the first 3uch day after
a rather warm,, rainy week.

John T. Emlen, Jr, & David E* Davis

AN OSPREY 150 MILES AT SEA

An Osprey (Pandion haliaetus ) that alighted on the combar cutter
Mendota about 150 miles o'ff T Cape Hat ter as. North Carolina, and stayed
with the boat until it docked at Curtis Bay, Baltimore, on September
24,. 1945,. was pictured on the vessel’s radar screen in the Baltimore
Evening Sun two days later, along with an account of the incident.

In that picture the bird is too small to be identifiable; however,
there was also taken a close-up photograph of Mendota crewmen hold-
ing the bird, underside forward with wings spread, and in this photo
it is instantly identifiable. To substantiate this record of occur-
rence a copy of the close-up has been obtained for the Maryland Or-
nithological Society.. The newspaper article Is not specific,- but

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apparently the bird came down on the ship September 23*

Pearson, Brimley and Brimley, in the 1942 edition of ,f Birds of
Uorth Carolina,’ 1 page 103, note that an Osprey that had been banded
a t Orient Point, Long Island, Hew York, was shot while attempting to
■alight on the mast of a ship 73 miles east of Cape Hatteras -on Octo-
ber 9, 1933#

The account of the Mendota bird given the Evening Sun by the
ship T s crew said the Osprey was on the mainmast when first noticed,
and spent four hours there. Then it moved to a radar fire-control
unit aft, and a crewman captured it* Taken down to deck, it remained
completely docile and after being photographed and measured — wing-
spread 4-| feet — still stayed on the boat when released* Moved to
a different perch after another hour, it did finally fly away, but
soon was back on the mainmast again, and there spent the night. On
the morning that the cutter docked (apparently the following morning)
the Osprey was still there. When it left is not known*

Hervey Brackbill

TWO ROBIN NESTLINGS FED OPPOSITE ENDS OF SAME EARTHWORM

A nest of Robins that I was watching in Baltimore held three
blind, downy young four' days old when, on July 5, 1943, the male par-
ent arrived on one feeding trip with an earthworm about 4 inches
long. The three yellow mouths gaped upward, and into one of them he
thrust one end of the earthworm, and then put the other end in the
mouth of a second bird']

At once each nestling began gulping its end; in a couple of sec-
onds the two were bill to bill, then their bills were Interlocked and
they began to thrash around in the nest in their efforts each to go
on swallowing the worm. Shortly one so far succeeded that it had a
good part of the other’s head in its cavernous mouth. Next they
worked into a jowl-to-jowl position, facing opposite directions, and
continued their tossing about, all the while watched but in no way -
aided by the parent that had got them into their fix.

After two minutes had passed, the female arrived. She fed the
third nestling; the male flew away. And now the female watched as
the worm-linked pair tumbled about, again biting bills and heads. At
last the little birds seemed to reach the limit of their strength;
both heads flopped down In the nest. But in a little while they were
lifted up again and the struggle was resumed.

Now, however, the female arrived at a solution of the problem.
Whenever her youngsters presented an opening, she pecked at the por-
tion of worm that showed Inside their mouths, and after five minutes

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s fte succeeded in cutting the worm in half* That was eleven minutes
after it had been given to the "birds.

Writing in the Passenger Pigeon , the bulletin of the Wisconsin
Society of Ornithology, for February, 1941, Alvin L. Throne has des-
cribed the similar feeding of an 8-inch Red-bellied Snake to two Her-
mit Thrush nestlings by the female parent* Those birds were linked
for more than half an hour, and were finally freed when the male
pulled the tail of the snake out of the gullet of one nestling*

Hervey Brackbill

MIGRATING BLACKBIRDS

On November 27, 1945 the writer was in transit from Camp Myles
Standish, Mass., to Fort Meade, Md, Just before sunset, when the
light was already much diminished, the train was in the vicinity of
Newark, Delaware. At this point large flocks of blackbirds were
first Observed streaming across the sky, and, as the journey contin-
ued into Maryland across Cecil County nearly to the Susquehanna River
additional flocks were seen from time to time. The form of the
flocks was most interesting. The birds were moving in long, very
wavey lines which extended in the same general direction as the line
of flight. The ranks were not more than a half dozen yards wide but
the flocks stretched out for miles, almost as far toward the horizon
as the eye could make out the birds. The sinuous lines were con-
stantly but 3lowly wavering back and forth into new undulating pat-
terns and at a distance the flocks appeared like streamers of smoke
drifting across the sky. The birds flew rather high and the train
was moving swiftly but it could be easily determined that the great
majority of the birds were grackles ( Quisculus ) .

If these were migrating flocks, the direction of flight was ra-
ther puzzling, for all were headed northward or somewhat west of
northward. There is a possibility that the birds were moving out of
a tidewater feeding area to roost in the uplands, which would not be
unexpected in the case of crows, but which seems rather the reverse
of the usual fall movement habits of blackbirds, fir, it may be, that
the flocks, after travelling southward along the west side of the Del-
aware during the day, had glimpsed the broad waters of the Chesapeake
toward evening and had turned back to avoid a night crossing.

Haven Kolb

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EDITORIAL NOTES

Our bulletin has been consistently late in appearing. Several
factors contribute to this unhealthy situation. It has been sugges-
ted that Maryland Birdlife be made a quarterly instead of a bi-month-
ly, thus concentrating effort at fewer times when, perhaps, greater
energy can be expended. Some similar journals publish only when suf-
ficient material has accumulated without regard to a definite time
interval, though in- many cases such a policy loads to early extinc-
tion. We should like to hear your opinion on this subject. Be pre-
pared to express it at the February and March meetings. If you can-
not attend these meetings, write us' a letterl

Whatever the form decided upon for the 1946 volume, we shall
still require material. Not ten percent of the membership has yet
been heard from in these pages. The present number 'illustrates the
use and interest involved in short notes which everyone can collect
and write up for the enjoyment and instruction of us all. With the
publication of this number we have no further material at hand fcr
the next The editor is loathe to call again upon the writers

who have served us so well in 1945.

On November 15, 1945 in New York Dr. Frank M. Chapman died at
the age of 81. Probably no other man had more to do with the pre-
sent widespread interest in the living bird, and so it is particu-
larly fitting that bird clubs such as ours should note his passing
with regret. To some of us, though we never met him, he was, through
the medium of his books and his editorship of Bird-Lore, a guide >
counsellor, and friend in our embryonic birding days. If your en-
thusiasm for birds needs reconditioning, now would be a good time to
read or re-read Dr. Chapman* s Autobiography of a Bird-Lover.

H. K.

MARYLAND ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY
Organized April 9, 1945 „ '

OFFICERS

Irving E. Hampe, President
Orville W. Crowder, Vice-President
Mrs. Millard C. Kent, Recording Secretary
Miss Helen Klinke, Corresponding Secretary
Millard C. Kent, Treasurer

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