Hello all,
This morning I drove over to Ft. Howard with Jim Stasz to successfully see
the reported Common Redpolls there (we had 6 - two nice looking males and 4
duller birds). These were found along the road about 100 yards back along
the entrance road from the parking lot feeding with a large group of
American Goldfinches in the Sweetgum trees. We were unable to relocate the
Orange-crowned Warbler reported yesterday. We also made a brief attempt for
the White-winged Crossbills at North Point Park but failed to find them.
I tried on 3 different occasions this week to see the Harlequin Duck below
the Key Bridge without success. Each time I could see a group of Bufflehead
near the shoreline of the western shore of the bridge but the Harlequin
Duck was not with them. I'd usualy see these birds swimming to the left
north of the bridge to an area not visible from the fort. On the way back
across the bridge, I suggested to Jim to look in the cove that is on the
north side of the roadway, around the corner and out of site of the vantage
points from Fort Armistead. Sure enough, as we came off the bridge there
was a group of Bufflehead in among some old wooden structures in the water
in this cove, and the Male Harlequin Duck was among them. Unfortunately,
there is no place to pull off here to view the birds and certainly if you
tried to do so the MD Tranportation Authority Police would love to award
you for doing so with a nice idiot of the day citation.
At Ft. Smallwood, we drove around to the northeast side and parked in the
lot opposite the marsh and about 1/4 mile from the buildings near the
shoreline. We got out of the car and the second bird we saw in a Sweetgum
over the car was the Common Redpoll that has been reported recently. We
also had good looks at a flock of about 20 White-winged Crossbills that
were moving around the area, including good stationary looks in some
sweetgums over the wet areas in the woodland and the Virginia Pines on the
north side of the flooded woodland. The Redpoll disappeared for a time but
Dan Haas showed up about 30 minutes after we had arrived and
after searching for a time, he relocated the bird in another Sweetgum on
the NE side of the parking area very close to where it was first observed
by us.
Ed Boyd
Chestnut Hill Cove, MD
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