[MDOsprey] Floyd report, DC area Potomac River

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One word summary: bust

Hi, 

I went to East Potomac Park and the Tidal Basin area, this morning, Sept.
17.  There were hundreds of gulls on the golf course at the former area,
and five Greater Yellowlegs.  Nothing was stirring in the river.  Around
the Tidal Basin, the three inches of rain from yesterday had left no trace
on the grass and barely any on the ground: I guess the high winds overnight
took care of that!  My boots were dry.  

The Jones Point, Alexandria, Virginia area was quiet too.  Ottavio Janni
and Dave Czaplak and I watched the river.  Nary a pelagic bird in sight,
neither north nor south of the bridge.  For me the highlight was watching
two adult Bald Eagles land on a snagged snag on the far side of the Potomac
upriver from my vantage point; it wasn't until the first bird was landing
that I saw the second bird, which landed almost immediately afterward.
Many minutes later the two birds were in the air, and the view in my line
of site was, from left to right, Capitol, eagle, eagle.  Stirring.  Other
birds of interest were one each Bank and Cliff Swallow (I had a poor view
of the latter), Am. White Pelican (which disappeared before my arrival), a
distant Merlin (which I never saw).  I watched a pair of Big Bluet
damselflies mate some 15 feet away, through a Questar telescope.  

Dave had seen two Stilt Sandpipers at the mouth of Hunting Creek this
morning.  

Georgetown Reservoir, well, nothing beyond pigeons and comorants and gulls.  

Rob Hilton

Rob (Robert) Hilton--*robert@csa.com*--Bethesda, Md. (very close to
Washington, DC)

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