Date: 9/20/12 9:12 am
From: Gail B. Mackiernan %<3Ckatahdinss...>%3E <katahdinss...>
Subject: [MDBirding] Wheaton Regional and Brookside Gardens today


Hi all,

A cold clear night yielded good early morning activity. At 7 AM a nice diurnal migration started with robins, blue jays and flickers overhead; these persisted the whole time we were out. We had a flock of 12 (count em!) Black-throated Green Warblers at about 7:15, with them a single Blackburnian, Redstart and Black-and-white. Sally Wechsler joined us for the rest of the morning at WRP and Jeff Shenot birded with us for a while as well. After WRP Barry and I went over to Brookside Gardens for about 45 minutes. We tallied a nice selection although we couldn't help but think we were missing something with so few eyes and so much habitat. There was an obvious re-mix of species, relatively few Red-eyed Vireos for example, and a real influx of Yellowthroats and BTGs, as well as Red-breasted Nuthatches with 6 of the latter and an uptick of hummingbirds, all examined carefully and all appeared conventional Ruby-throats. An amazing abundance of Catbirds. Blue jays continued overhead in small groups all morning. No tanagers seen, which was odd. Grosbeak numbers still good and a few thrushes were feeding at native grape in WRP and sweet gum in the Gardens. The most interesting bird was seen very briefly by Sally and myself, it hopped up into low branches of a shrub by the mini-train tracks, posed for maybe 5 seconds, and flew off and could not be relocated. On size, posture, color and behavior we were both pretty sure it was a HY female Mourning Warbler but really would have liked better looks. Oh well...

Gail Macvkiernan and Barry Cooper
Colesville, MD

Highlights:

Sharp-shinned Hawk 2
Red-shouldered Hawk 2
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 6
Belted Kingfisher 1
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 35 conservative estimate; constant presence in flight, perched in trees and on ground
Pileated Woodpecker 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee 2
Alder/Willow Flycatcher (Traill's Flycatcher) 1
Eastern Phoebe 1
Red-eyed Vireo 10
Blue Jay 150 could have 200 -- passing overhead for 3 hours in small parties, & one flock of 20+
Red-breasted Nuthatch 6
House Wren 3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2
Veery 1
Swainson's Thrush 2
Wood Thrush 2
American Robin 70 estimate only
Gray Catbird 50 again an estimate; very abundant both in park and Brookside Gardens with about 25 observed at both sites
Brown Thrasher 4
Black-and-white Warbler 4
Nashville Warbler 3
Common Yellowthroat 15
(probable) Mourning Warbler 1
American Redstart 8
Northern Parula 4
Magnolia Warbler 12
Bay-breasted Warbler 1 adult with some bay in flanks
Blackburnian Warbler 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler 3
Black-throated Green Warbler 18 12 together in a virtually single-species flock at 7:15 AM; singles scattered in mixed flocks later in morning
Eastern Towhee 5
Chipping Sparrow 8
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 10

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