Your note reminds me that I had intended to post that I found a PURPLE GALLINULE at Hughes Hollow last Saturday but it was not near the island.  It was in
the other impoundment (to the right as you walk down the central dyke).
What surprised me was that I flushed it by walking on the dyke but it had
not been flushed by hunters who were training their dogs in that
impoundment.






06/17/2004 08:41 AM
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        Subject:        [MDOSPREY] McKee-Beshers WMA, Mont Co-6-15


15 June 2004
      Took my tenth and final breeding bird count this morning(I'll post
the
results once they are compiled).  Although this was one of the least
interesting routes, just walking through the central fields, it produced
the
best birds of the season- two female plumaged HOODED MERGANSERS in a small
pond near a swamp. They flew off before I could try and age them.  It
seems
a little too early to have fully independent young from a nesting this
year,
so their status remains unknown.  Earlier this spring this pond had a pair
of Green-winged Teal that stayed around for a couple of weeks.
       I walked back to the car by the impoundments and found 2 of the 3
non-rail rails: the PURPLE GALLINULE was walking on a mat of smartweed and
the COMMON MOORHEN was sitting on a fallen tree along the island
shoreline.
I watched awhile but couldn't come up with the COOT that has been here(I
last saw it on June 11) .
      Other birds of interest were 2 YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT HERONS- one
flying
over on the count and an adult in a swampy area along Hunting Quarter Rd
where I commonly found them the past 2 years, but this was the first time
this year and a singing YELLOW-THROATED VIREO in a willow in a very open
area .  This species is relatively common here, but to me this was a
strange
place to find one- more like Warbling Vireo habitat.

Paul Woodward
Fairfax City, VA 22032