While not in VA I thought a lot of you would find the following of interest
since it isn't all that far away.
Thanks, Joe Coleman
"Hi Folks,
Following many weeks of daily observation, Brian Sykes has released several of
his photos of the complete nesting cycle of the Brown Creepers, whose nest was
discovered along the Patapsco River near the Halethorpe Farms Pond in late
March. Three young were seen fledging on the day of the May Count, Sat., 13
May 2006. There had been a total of seven eggs seen in the nest.
According to the "Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Maryland..." (the compilation
of the results from the 1980s atlas project) the contents of a Brown Creeper
nest had never been documented in Maryland. This is certainly a momentous
occasion for the breeding bird atlas project, particularly in light of the
scarcity of confirmations for this species during the current atlas.
Charlie Kucera has been kind enough to scan Sykes' photos, and place them on
the website that he created to document birds and nesting, particularly at UMBC
and other parts of the Relay NW and NE atlas blocks. To view some selected
photos of the creeper nesting, go to
http://home.us.net/ckucera/browncreeper.htm
and then click on the "rest of the story" for the remaining photos.
Stan Arnold
Glen Burnie"
