Hi Everybody:
Kathy Calvert and I spent the vast majority of our day in the above
counties (subject title). We started before daylight at the end of Hog
Island Rd. listening and then doing a Choptank River watch for flybys. We
had several Great Horned Owls calling and 5-6 flyover Wilson's Snipe but
little else. We then headed forAdkins Arboretum and once on Eveland Rd.
pulled into the small hunting parking lot located 1+ miles before the
entrance to the arboretum. Once the sun hit the trees we had a few
warblers, best of which were 2 BLACK-THROATED GREENs. We also had 2
RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHES (the first of many for the day), more proof that it
should be a banner end of the year for this species in MD.
We found the grounds inside the Arboretum (where we concentrated on trails
around the fields bordering edges of forest) to be extremely inactive and
very tedious trying to find migrants. A few ventures along the trails
leading into the woods were similar.We did find 1 each of 5 species of
warblers...Amer. Redstart, Black & White, N. Parula, Pine and Magnolia.
We made quick stops at nearby Tuckahoe St. Park both at the Caroline side
of the lake and also the campground area. Due to the continuing inactivity
we did not spend alot of time at either location. There was 1 Great Egret
along the edge of the lake (Caroline side).
We had previously checked the tide charts and knew that low tide at the
Tanyard marsh was 10:30ish AM. We arrived shortly after this and crawled
our way across the causeway. We saw a single Greater Yellowlegs, 5
Semipalmated Plovers, and 15-20 each of Semipalmated Sandpipers and Least
Sandpipers that were actively moving around among the various mudflats. At
our 4th and final stop near the Keep MD beautiful sign Kathy spotted a
plover about 150 feet out along with 3 Killdeer. Out came the scopes and we
were soon looking at an AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER. Great find by Kathy!
We enjoyed the bird for another 20 minutes and then I received a message
from Ron Gutberlet that he was "leading a field trip" (does he ever really
work?) for some students and had found several Caspian Terns off of Cove Rd
(off of Naticoke Rd. on the way to Waterview). It did not take us long to
agree to head further east. Shortly after arriving at the small park at the
end of the road we saw 3 CASPIAN TERNS over the river actively diving and
feeding. We then retraced our steps to the Cedar Hill Marina where we saw
at least 3 more Caspian Terns. There were also 110 Royal Terns at this
location, the vast majority sitting on the jetties.
We then headed back west and birded Old Bradley Rd.(still in Wic. Co.).
This proved to be extremely quiet...midafternoon did not help either. We
continued on (now on Riverton Rd.); we stopped at the Owens Creek crossing
and finally had some activity. We did not have any warblers but did hear
and see 2 more Red-breasted Nuthatches and best of all was a female
ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK.
Our last stop of the day was at the Henson Scout Reservation. We had
several warblers...N. Parula (3), Pine (3) and Black & White (1). Two more
Red-breasted Nuthatches were no surprise . We did have one warbler in the
treetops which could have been a Tennessee W. but just did not get enough
unobstructed looks at to confirm ID. On the way out we found Kathy's
closeout Brown Thrasher.
It was a great day to be out!
Jim Green
Gaithersburg, MD
work in moderation...BIRD IN EXCESS!!!
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