Two down, five to go!

Norm Saunders (osprey@ARI.Net)
Sun, 23 Nov 1997 20:28:09 -0500


Fran and I took a walk along the Northwest Branch of Rock Creek this 
morning (Sunday, 23 November), the stretch of the river between 
Randolph Road and Bonifant Road in Montgomery County.  We turned up 
the following species, including two we needed for our 1997 list!

We saw 4 BELTED KINGFISHERS hunting up and down the stream, all of 
the woodpeckers except Red-headed, a flock of several hundred 
AMERICAN CROW ranging overhead all morning, both RED- and 
WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCHES, and BROWN CREEPERS.  We had over a dozebn 
CAROLINA WRENS and a lone WINTER WREN, a flock of aobut 25-30 
YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS, 3 FIELD SPARROWS, 4 FOX SPARROWS, 33 SONG 
SPARROWS, and well over 100 of each of  WHITE-THROATED SPARROW and 
DARK-EYED JUNCO.  

This turned out to be a wonderfully deserted section of bottomland 
forest and stream through the heart of the most developed areas of 
Montgomery County, a most pleasant surprise indeed!  We'll be coming 
back to this area during spring migration to see what surprises turn 
up.

So, now I need 5 species and Fran needs 11 to hit the magic number 
(this year's magic number, anyway...grin)!

Cheers,
Norm


===============
Norm Saunders
Colesville, MD
osprey@ari.net