Re: Heat Wave Birding

Kathy Klimkiewicz (Kathy_Klimkiewicz@usgs.gov)
Mon, 1 Jun 1998 10:24:18 -0600 

     Seems early for a juvenile orchard oriole -- are you referring to a 
     subadult plumaged bird?
     
     Cheers,
     Kathy Klimkiewicz


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Heat Wave Birding
Author:  mdosprey@ARI.Net at NBS-Internet-Gateway
Date:    5/31/98 7:15 PM


Saturday morning I wandered in Hughes Hollow for a few hours.  I was hoping 
for Least Bittern but it appears the impoundments have been nuked with a 
defoliant--anyone know what's causing the massive aquatic vegetation die-off 
there?  This isn't a new phenomenon, by the way--I've asked this same 
question in each of the past three years (on The Osprey's Nest) and never 
received a good answer.  Maybe now with the broader subscriber-ship we can 
find out what is being done to Hughes Hollow.
     
Anyway,  I had good looks at a pair of Yellow Warblers flirting with each other,
     
a singing Willow Flycatcher, and a juvenile male Orchard Oriole.  A few calling 
Blackpoll Warblers were the only evidence of non-breeding migrants all 
morning.
     
This morning, Sunday, Fran and I went first to Piney Run Park, up in Carroll 
County, with notable lack of success.  We must just not know this park well 
enough because we were looking for what should have been easy species--
barn and tree swallow, chimney swift, great blue heron, and red-winged 
blackbird--and we didn't see nary a one there!
     
Moving along, we stumbled on an area previously unknown to us--Morgan Run 
Natural Environment Area (seemingly a DNR-run dog-training and horse-riding 
area) that gave us some great looks at about a half-dozen or so Grasshopper 
Sparrows.  All told we saw about 50 species in this grassland-dominated park-- 
well worth an early morning wander--we'll be back there for sure!
     
Dickcissel on Lilypons Road.  Drive past the water gardens, cross the bridge, 
and head up the road to where the fields first open out, with fence lines along 
either side of the road.  Here we watched the bird displaying on a fencepost 
from about ten feet away for almost 30 minutes.  What a show!
     
where we found a good-sized group of Cliff Swallows nesting under the C&O 
Canal Aqueduct across Seneca Creek, just before it opens out into the 
Potomac.
     
So, those were the high-point birds of the weekend!
     
Stay cool, all!
     
Norm
     
===============
Norm Saunders
Colesville, MD
osprey@ari.net