Hi Everyone,
Jim Green already reported our main highlights from Wednesday (20 Mar
2013). We had a fun day birding from Garrett to Frederick. I left my
house at about 1:30 am, picked Jim up at about 4:00 am, and we were in
Garrett before first light. We got back to Jim's house at about 9 pm. Now
that's the way to get the most out of a birding day--woohoo! East of
Garrett Co, all water was open; the larger lakes in Garrett were still iced
over, with only small areas of open water. Ponds in Garrett were open.
Jim and I will be getting everything into eBird as soon as we can, but
here is some news from yesterday.
On Thursday (21 Mar 2013), Jim and I were on Sycamore Landing Rd in
Montgomery Co just in time for the last American Woodcock display of the
dawn. Next was Hughes Hollow (McKee Beshers WMA)--Jim knew where to sneak
up on some Blue-winged Teal, and we saw at least 10. I had hoped we'd find
one in Washington Co on Wed, which would have made the Montgomery birds my
county closeout. Oh well, it's down to Washington now!
Birding at Hughes Hollow was nice, as it always is, and we had 40 species
in about an hour. Highlights included the continuing Great Egret and 6
Rusty Blackbirds.
Unfortunately Jim had to leave for work after this, but I continued to bird
for the rest of the day. On a tip from Jim, I stopped at the second bridge
on Sycamore Landing Rd to look for Red-headed Woodpecker--he had seen one
there in January. After I tried a few Barred Owl hoots, a nice Red-headed
flew in and vocalized. Its head was completely red, but it still had some
black in the secondaries, indicative of a young bird. Nice! The 198th
species for my MD March list. At Sycamore Landing, a pair of Long-tailed
Ducks was slowly drifting down the Potomac. I got some very poor
digiscopes that nonetheless get the job done for documentation. I counted
36 Tree Swallows flying upriver here.
Next I tried scanning Frederick Co waters from the Mouth of the Monocacy,
but the only ducks I saw here were 4 Gadwall. Cold and windy! A
Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler and 2 Brown Creepers were also here.
Lilypons in Frederick Co had nice diversity, including 4 Blue-winged Teal,
4 Wilson's Snipe, 6 Northern Rough-winged Swallows, 3 Tree Swallows, a
Myrtle Warbler, and 4 Fox Sparrows. An interesting change from the day
before at Kershner's Pond (Frederick Co) was 27 Tundra Swans; there was
only one there on Wednesday.
I finished the day at Piney Run in Carroll Co. The Long-tailed Ducks and
Red-breasted Mergansers had moved on, but I did see a nice Common Loon in
full breeding plumage and 6 Horned Grebes.
Another fun 2 days of MD birding, including 12 new county birds and 3 new
county closeouts (American Wigeon, American Coot, Swamp Sparrow).
Have fun,
Ron Gutberlet
Salisbury, MD
<rlgutberlet...>
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