Starting this year, I am atlasing the Bittinger NW block in Garrett County.
It basically surrounds the town of Bittinger, which is nearly at the
center point of the block.  From looking at maps and driving the roads,
I do not believe there is any public land in the block other than the
roads.  Fortunately for me, the friendly owners of Firefly Farms (visit
them at www.fireflyfarms.com or better yet go to Whole Foods and buy
some of their delicious cheese) have given me access to their property,
which has a lot of good habitat, including fields, woods, creeks, and
swampy bottomlands.  Outside of this area, some of the nicer places
in the block are where the North and South Branches of the Casselman
River cross roads, especially along Orendorf Rd -- where I saw a Broad-
winged Hawk and heard a Barred Owl  -- and near the intersection of
Maynardier Rd and Bear Hill Rd, where I had stunning views of a male
Blackburnian Warbler, which came down into a relatively small, bare tree.
Black-throated Green Warblers were also in both these locations and seemed
to be singing from almost every stand of woods I stopped by throughout the
block.  Blue-headed Vireos were also quite common.  The only other
warblers encountered were an Ovenbird and several Yellow-rumps (a county
close-out).

Since there aren't a lot of birds in safe dates yet and I wasn't familiar,
with the area, this trip was primarily a scouting mission, but I did
manage to add a few birds to the atlas -- Rock Dove, Barred Owl, House
Sparrow, Titmouse, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Cardinal, Starling, Ruffed
Grouse (on the farm property), American Woodcock (ditto), Mourning Dove,
Grackle, Killdeer, American Crow (NB), Eastern Meadowlark, and Eastern
Phoebe (NB).

For birds not yet in safe dates, I have the highest hopes that the Vesper
Sparrow, Red-shouldered Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, and Cooper's Hawk I found
will stick around since they were not listed in the previous atlas.  Other
birds outside of safe dates seen include: Turkey Vulture, Canada Goose,
Mallard, Flicker, Blue Jay, Tree Swallow, Chickadee, White-breasted
Nuthatch, House Wren, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Wood Thrush, Robin, Brown
Thrasher, Towhee, Chipping Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, Red-
winged Blackbird, Cowbird, and American Goldfinch.

Good atlasing,

John Hubbell
Chevy Chase, MD

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