Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2003 23:01:14 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Joel Martin Subject: Montgomery Co. 4/13 - Grebes, Bittern, Teal, Terns MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Visited southern Montgomery County on this beautiful day, hoping to add to my county list and find some of the good birds reported recently by Dave Powell and others. First stop in the AM was the overlook at Black Hill which had 4 RED-NECKED GREBES, 2 COMMON LOON and 3 BUFFLEHEAD. On to the impoundments at Hughes Hollow, where the TREE SWALLOW flock contained one BARN and one ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW. A CASPIAN TERN made several passes over the first impoundment on the right. An OSPREY was perched at the far end of the big pond. But the day's best birds were at the second pond on the right. At least 2 pairs of BLUE-WINGED TEAL were swimming in the wooded swamp near the path with 2 WOOD DUCKS. I went down to the first field and walked along the back (south) side of the pond, looking for places where there was some visibility. Just a few steps into the swamp I flushed an AMERICAN BITTERN which flew a few yards and then settled down and began hunting. I watched as it caught and devoured a sizable frog. While watching this bird, something black, white and red flew across my field -- adult RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. He stayed around to check out some previously excavated holes. A nearby swampy woods, behind the pine stand, held about 8 GREEN-WINGED TEAL. From there it was down to Seneca where 4 RN GREBES were swimming down the creek (right beside some fishermen!) and a HORNED GREBE was at the mouth. I walked about a mile upriver, finding more CASPIAN TERNS and a flock of BONAPARTE'S GULLS but not much else. Ran into Paul and Sherri Zucker who also commented on the dearth of migrants. Before heading home I stopped at Monocacy Aqueduct, hoping for Red-necked Grebe in Frederick County, but found only 2 RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS. But an adult BALD EAGLE flew over, crossing the airspace of both counties, and a male PILEATED WOODPECKER on the west side let me watch as he drummed out his song. 60 species for the morning, including 6 woodpeckers (no Hairy) but no warblers of any kind. Joel Martin Catonsville, MD jcdlmartin@aol.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================