Even though hectic schedules postponed our target day to an unreasonably
late date for a Big Day, my brothers Mike and Tom joined me for one anyway
last Sunday. As expected, migrant warblers were really tough to come by,
but we did manage to find a striking Blackburnian Warbler, a Magnolia
Warbler, two Yellow-rumped Warblers, and a Canada Warbler, among the
plentiful breeders and Blackpolls, so we can't complain.
We began in the southwest part of the county, along the Potomac River, and
made our way north before crossing to the east side of the county and
working our way down to the Charles line. We found 117 species but, due to
5% birds, our official total was docked two to 115.
Some of our highlights included:
All three merganser species!
Hooded Merganser - 1 - seen in a drainage pond in between the beltway and a
ramp. This little pond isn't much, but it's not far from my work, so I see
it every few days for a couple seconds as I drive by. There had been a
straggling Lesser Scaup present into early May, so I decided it'd be worth
exiting the beltway and then getting back on, just to take a quick look. No
Lesser Scaup, but a female Hooded Merganser popped up from her dive just
before the water went out of view.
Common Merganser - 1 - female resting on a sandbar at Bladensburg
Waterfront Park. I've seen a lone female here a few times in the warmer
months, but not since 20 Jun 2010, so this was a great surprise.
Red-breasted Merganser - 1 - male feeding on the edge of the mudflats at
Oxon Cove. We hadn't planned to stop here because of the amount of walking
involved, but we couldn't pass it up once we noticed the extensive mudflats
while driving on Rt. 295. This is only my second record of this species in
PG for May, and it's easily my new late date for the region.
Least Bitten - 1 - calling from the CADT tower at Merkle Wildlife Sanctuary
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron - 2 - adults flying over the Anacostia, saving
us a time consuming detour later.
Least Sandpiper - 11 - Oxon Cove
Common Nighthawk - 1 - seen in the late afternoon at Milltown Landing
Red-headed Woodpecker - 2
Willow Flycatcher - 1 - Mellwood Rd.
Common Raven - 2 - sitting on the Rocky Gorge dam in the rainy weather
Cliff Swallow - 1 - bird perched on a snag at National Colonial Farm,
again, sitting out the rain. Finally, a personal record in the county away
from the breeders at Rocky Gorge.
Kentucky Warblers - 2 - singles on both sides of the county
Savannah Sparrow - 1 - lingering at Piscataway Park
Swamp Sparrow - 2 - one calling from the swamp at Piscataway Park and
another seen at the National Colonial Farm.
Bobolink - 9 - at three different locations
All in all a pretty good day. We essentially cleaned up on all the breeders
and added a handful of stragglers and migrants to get our total. As usual,
marsh and night birds did not help us out very much. It would not have been
too surprising to add a couple owls, a rail or two, and a Whip-poor-whil
(we checked Fran Uhler on both ends of the day, but the weather wasn't
great for singing), bringing our total over my personal county Big Day
record. Who knows what where we would've ended up on a good migrant day.
Our worst miss? House Wren. We just barely avoided missing Belted
Kingfisher, picking it up at Cedar Haven, our last stop with even a
possibility of finding it.
Rob Ostrowski
Silver Spring, MD
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