Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 17:11:05 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Matt Hafner Subject: Western MD weekend Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Kim Caughey, Jim Stasz and I took a trip out to Garrett County for Saturday's fall count. Friday evening we made a stop at Funkstown WWTP in Washington County. The Eared Grebe I was hoping for was not present, but there was a small warbler flock along the entrance road. We were treated to Blackburnian, Magnolia, Black-throated Green, Parula, and Chestnut-sided warblers. Plus a Philadelphia Vireo. We stayed the night at Carey Run and heard the local Barred Owl. The next morning at Finzel Swamp we heard a wonderful dawn thrush flight. In the 25 minutes we listened, we had 25 Swainson's, 8 Veeries, a Gray-cheek and 3 Wood Thrushes. Once it became light enough to see birds, however the rain started. We ditched our warblering plans and headed to Meadow Lake. Once again my target Eared Grebe was not produced, but I was more than pleased by the American Golden-Plover sitting with the Killdeer and the Merlin on top of a telephone poll!! Our next stop was Piney Reservoir where another Merlin was showing off and a Great Egret was perusing the edge of the lake. The rain was about done so we headed back to Finzel. The warblers were thin but the Lincoln's Sparrows surely weren't. We had 10!! Jim told me there would be guaranteed Lincoln's, but that was excellent. Warblers included Tennessee, Magnolia, Black-throated Green and Yellowthroat. A trip to the Yougiheny Reservoir. Our shorebird search was rather unsucessful but we did find Blu! ! e-winged Teal, Gadwall, and American Wigeon. A quick tour of Buffalo Run Rd. produced Black-throated Blue and Hooded Warblers. Also a migrant Osprey and Sharp-shinned Hawk. We then drove down south where Snaggy Mt. Rd. produced another Black-throated Blue and my first Ruby-crowned Kinglet of the fall. A turf farm near Red House had 112 Killdeer and 2 Pectoral Sandpipers. We then drove through the Pleasant Valley area south of Oakland. Highlights there included: Bald Eagle, Red-headed Woodpecker, Olive-sided Flycatcher(my other target!!), Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Pine Warbler and Blackpoll Warbler. The Oakland WWTP was also exciting. We arrived to see a Merlin cruising around chasing Wood Ducks. 3 Merlins for the day!!! Also a Sharp-shinned and 4 Harriers were around. No Eared Grebe, again. Ducks included numerous Wood, Mallard, 2 Blue-wings and a Ruddy. A warbler flock near the ponds had Redstart, Prairie, Palm, Cape May, and Magnolia. Also a Baltimore Oriole. The Merlin then returned and perched on a close snag in excellent light. Very nice! We then headed out to Aaron Run Rd. There we discovered the field was freshly plowed and covered with Killdeer and 2 Golden-Plovers with a few Pectorals. Also 2 Henslow's were calling and a Lincoln's Sparrow was along the edge. On the way back to Carey Run, a Spotted Skunk along the side of road was quite a treat. Today we woke up to head to Rocky Gap. First we stopped at the canal in Cumberland. 2 Spotted Sandpipers and some Killdeer were all that we could find. Rocky Gap had some nice warbler flocks that included Bay-breasted, Black-throated Green, and Magnolia. Also nice were Warbling Vireo and Blue-headed Vireo. Ducks were scarce with only 2 Blue-winged Teal mixed with the Mallards. On to Green Ridge where we were destined to see more warblers. Green Ridge held the best warblering for the weekend. With 3 stops we had the following 3 Tennessee, 1 Nashville, 1 Parula, 4 Chestnut-sided, 8 Magnolia, 2 Cape May, 2 Black-throated Blue, 6 Black-throated Green, 3 Blackburnian, 10 Pine, 1 Bay-breasted, 4 Black-and-white, 4 Redstart, 1 Worm-eating, 2 Ovenbird, 1 Yellowthroat, and 1 Hooded. Another highlight was 9 Turkeys and 3 Philadelphia Vireos!! Cohill Area in Washington County was our next stop. There we didn't have much outside of one flock but that flock included a Least Flycatcher and earlier on the road we had 2 Traill's for our only Empids of the trip. All in all an excellent weekend. It's quite a different world out there in the fall. Matt Hafner College Park, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================