No More Doldrums in Montgomery Co. Today!
GAIL@UMDD.UMD.EDU
Fri, 7 May 99 18:10:49 EDT
Hi all --
Today when we woke up it was so foggy and dank around our house that we decided
to stay home and clean. When I went outside at 6:30 to put out trash, there
was a singing male Blackburnian Warbler in our yard (a new yard bird, btw). UH
OH! To heck with cleaning, let's go birding! We decided on the C&O Canal,
figuring it would be less subject to fog than our usual patch at Rock Creek.
We got to Violette's Lock at 8 am exactly, and spent the next two hours in
the parking lot which was absolutely alive with birds. A birder who was
already there told us we had just missed a Cape May W., but there was more'
than enough to keep us busy. We then walked downstream and up, looking for
flocks of birds, did the parking lot area some more, then off to Sycamore
Landing (stopping at Poole's Store, where we had five species of warbler from
the parking lot, including Louisiana Waterthrush, as well as Spotted SP.)
River Road for Chat, then did Seneca/Riley's Lock. We ended up at about 3 pm,
totally whacked but happy. It was definitely a BIG DAY -- every birder we
met had been seeing loads of migrants, warbler totals in the range of 20-25
species, and so forth. We totalled 98 species for the day (without any real
attempt at a big species list), 25 species of warbler, and many other migrants.
(As an aside, counting species seen by other birders with whom we spoke, but
not by us, almost 30 species of warbler was seen between Pennyfield Lock and
Sycamore today!)
HIghlights: 3 Prothonotary, 2 Blue-winged, 1 Golden-winged, ca. 35 Parula,
ca. 30 Black-and-White, ca. 15 Black-throated Blue, 2 Cerulean, 2 Blackburnian,
5 Chestnut-sided, 4 Magnolia, ca. 300 Yellow-rumped (Myrtle), 4 Black-throated
Green, 1 Yellow-throated, 6 Prairie, 2 Bay-breasted, 1 Tennessee, 10 Blackpoll,
10 Yellow, 4 Canada, 6 Ovenbird, 2 Louisiana Waterthrush, 4 Northern Water-
thrush, ca. 70 Common Yellowthroats (!), 3 Yellow-breasted Chats, 25 Redstarts,
ca. 60 Red-eyed Vireos, 2 Yellow-throated Vireo, 4 White-eyed Vireo, 6 Wood
Thrush, 3 Veerys, 1 Swainson's Thrush, ca. 12 Baltimore Orioles, 6 Orchard
Orioles, 15 Scarlet Tanagers, 2 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, 12 Acadian Flycatchers,
6 Eastern Pewees, 8 Great Crested Flycatchers, 6 Eastern Kingbirds, 35
White-throated Sparrows, 1 Brown Thrasher, 1 Ruby-throated Hummingbird on a
nest, 6 Yellow-billed Cuckoos, 1 American Bittern, 1 Least Bittern (heard),
1 VA Rail (last 3 at Hughes Hollow), on river 1 Common Loon and 1 Bonaparte's
Gull. Other birds of note seen by others included Worm-eating, Cape May,&
Kentucky Warblers, as well as Grey-cheeked Thrush).
Hope some of these goodies stay around for the May Count tomorrow!
Cheers,
Gail Mackiernan and Barry Cooper