Hi all,
A clear sunny morning after a cold front -- should be really good, eh? Well, maybe...actually it started off very slow and a sharp contrast to yesterday's activity. In the first half-hour we saw three warblers, one gnatcatcher and a red-eyed vireo. However, one of the warblers was a nice BLUE-WINGED and another a snazzy CANADA. After that, we struggled for a while -- as did most of the other birders out there this morning. Finally, we were blessed with a good feeding flock and the warbler list started to expand (this was about 8:30 - 9 AM). We ended up with 7 species, including two nice BLACKBURNIANS and two more Canadas. No sign, alas, of yesterday's Mourning, nor any Yellowthroats for that matter. When things shut down at about 9:30 we started to leave, but walking back to the car noticed a large-headed, short-tailed bird perched on the tip of a snag near the mini-train tracks. An OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER, first of the season! (But as folks know from last year, this park is one of the best spot in Montgomery Co. for this scarce visitor. Last year we had our first on August 22.) We watched as it sallied forth and back -- luckily we managed to corral some of the other birders to see it as well. It flew off and disappeared for a while, and we decided to leave. On the way out along the tracks we had two Empids chasing each other, one remained unidentified but the other was a nice little LEAST.
Not a bad morning despite the slow start!
Gail Mackiernan and Barry Cooper
Colesville, MD
Full ebird list below:
Wheaton Regional Park and Brookside Gardens, Montgomery, US-MD
Aug 18, 2012 7:25 AM - 9:55 AM
Protocol: Traveling
2.5 mile(s)
Comments: Sunny, cool, bit of a northerly breeze but birding slow for first hour. Shut down abruptly around 9:30.
38 species (+2 other taxa)
Great Blue Heron 1
Green Heron 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Mourning Dove 6
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 7
Red-bellied Woodpecker 5
Downy Woodpecker 3
Northern Flicker 6
Pileated Woodpecker 2
Olive-sided Flycatcher 1 Regular but scarce at this site in autumn; sitting on dead snag, large-headed and billed, short-tailed flycatcher, obvious grayish-brown "vest" (vest slightly streaked). Sallied forth several times, returning to tips of snag.
Eastern Wood-Pewee 8
Least Flycatcher 1
Empidonax sp. 1
Red-eyed Vireo 6
Blue Jay 2
American Crow 2
crow sp. 4
Carolina Chickadee 4
Tufted Titmouse 6
White-breasted Nuthatch 4
House Wren 2
Carolina Wren 4
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 3
Wood Thrush 1 heard only
American Robin 25
Gray Catbird 12
Blue-winged Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 2
American Redstart 8
Northern Parula 1
Blackburnian Warbler 2 one HY bird, very dull; one adult male
Chestnut-sided Warbler 6 all but one HY birds
Canada Warbler 3
Eastern Towhee 6
Chipping Sparrow 3
Northern Cardinal 5
Common Grackle X
Baltimore Oriole 2
House Finch 3
American Goldfinch 9
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 ( http://ebird.org )
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