Milford Mill Saturday
Norm Saunders (osprey@ARI.Net)
Tue, 8 Sep 1998 19:47:17 -0500
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>From osprey@ari.net Sat Sep 5 22:36:23 1998
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Date: Sat, 05 Sep 1998 22:36:45 -0700
From: "Peter A. Webb" <"pwebb@mail"@bcpl.net>
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Milford Mill Park DOES get fall warblers! Sep 5, 1998 8:30 - 10 am
Steve Sanford and I have birded this park just inside the Baltimore
Beltway off Milford Mill Road for years, and Steve has tried one or
two fall visits without many birds to show for it. Today, I birded
it with fellow Balt. Bird Club member Leanne Pemburn and garnered
44 species with 15 warbler species plus a tantalizing glimpse at
a flyby bird which might well have been a 16th. Birds identified:
Mourning Dove, Chimney Swift, Red-bellied Wpkr, Downy, Hairy, Flicker, a
nice lingering look at an obliging Pileated Woodpecker, Peewee, Acadian
Flycatcher (a curious youngster), Blue Jay, Crow, C. Chickadee, Titmouse,
W B Nuthatch, Car. Wren, Gnatcatcher, Robin, Catbird, Mocker, White-
eyed
Vireo, a good, close look at a Yellow-throated Vireo, Red- eyed Vireo, and
the 15 known warblers: Blue-winged, Tennessee, Nashville, Parula,
Chestnut-sided (five or more), Magnolia (three or more), Black- throated
Blue (both genders: one male and two females), Black-throated Green,
Blackburnian (two or more), Blackpoll (fall immature, yellowish),
Black-and-White (at least two), Redstart (a young male and a female),
Ovenbird, Yellowthroat (a fall young male with eye-ring and a female), and
Canada warblers. Finishing off: Scarlet Tanager (yellow), Cardinal,
Rose-breasted Grosbeak (heard only), Grackle, Baltimore Oriole, and
Goldfinch.
The possible 16th warbler, if that's what it was, flew by rapidly and low
to the ground and disappeared into heavy understory. By its size, shape
and overall color, it may well have been a Connecticut Warbler. Otherwise,
it probably was an undersized and uncharacteristically yellow-greenish
tinged Swainson's Thrush. The impression I was left with makes me lean
toward the former, rather than the latter.
Milford Mill park is most easily reached from Beltway exit 18, Liberty
Road; proceed west away from the city, right at the first light,
Washington Avenue. Proceed to end of road with another light and turn
right onto Milford Mill Road. Proceed under the bridge with the Beltway on
top of it and immediately after it turn right into the little lot for the
park. If it's full, one can park on the side of the road across Milford
Mill Road opposite the little parking lot. From the lot, two paved paths
are visible; the left one goes into a clearing while the right one goes
into the woods. The possible Connecticut Warbler was down the woodland
path, well beyond a wooden bridge/boardwalk which itself is worth a good
lingering visit, in an area where the path slopes downhill and a small,
overgrown (unpaved) trail branches off to the right towards the Beltway.
The bird flew from brushes near the trailhead left across the paved path
to some dense understory to the left. The best birding this morning was
further along where the path continues into a left curve and emerges by
the banks of Gwynns Falls, a major stream. The paved path doubles back to
the parking lot along the stream bank and becomes the "left path" visible
from the lot, completing a one-mile walking loop.
Pete Webb pwebb@bcpl.net Baltimore, Md.
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Norm Saunders
Colesville, MD
osprey@ari.net