Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 13:37:07 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Gail Mackiernan Subject: Kenilworth Gardens today 7/11 Hi everyone -- We went to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens today to see what was what. The lotuses are in full bloom, the giant Victoria Water Lilies (which I recall vividly from visits when I was a little kid) and other tropical lilies are starting to flower. Naturally there were oodles of dragonflies about as well (a chance to try out our new "dragonflies Through Binoculars" book!) Birds -- well, certainly shorebirds and herons are starting to move and KAG would bear close watching as summer wears on for DC rarities such as Little Blue or Tricolored Heron, good shorebirds and perhaps even rails. Herons: 15 Great Blue including one immature, 6 Little Green including one immature, 3 Common Egrets at the end of the boardwalk. Shorebirds: 6 Greater and one Lesser Yellowleg, 4 Solitary & 6 Spotted Sandpipers, 20 or more Killdeer (all adults). No peeps yet. Tide was starting to flood. Passerines were pretty quiet but the Marsh Wren is still singing at the end of the boardwalk, also Red-eyed and Warbling Vireo, Baltimore Oriole, Indigo Bunting and Yellowthroat all singing. The Marsh Trail hosted a large flock of Robins, so they are starting to flock. A number of swallows, Barn and Rough- Winged. Butterflies included Viceroy, Red Admiral, Tiger Swallowtail (dark phase), Red-spotted Purple, Common Sulphur, Silver-spotted Skipper and Eastern Tailed Blue. Dragonflies included Common Whitetail (male and female), Eastern Pondhawk (male and female), Blue Dasher (almost all males and lots of them), Slaty Skimmer, and a couple of Black Saddlebags patrolling the ponds. We are just getting up to speed on dragonflies so undoubtedly missed some. Cheers, Gail Mackiernan and Barry Cooper Colesville, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================