Hi Folks,

A few days ago Jay Sheppard found a Purple Gallinule in his Laurel NE atlas block at the Oxbow Lake, near Laurel in western AA Co.  He invited me to come look for it this morning, and after about 40 minutes of searching, he spotted something that looked like a blue bag or bottle that turned out to be the gallinule.  Once we got the scopes trained on it, its blue color with red on the facial shield was quite magnificent in the morning sunlight.  It stayed in sight for about 20 minutes, and then disappeared in the aquatic vegetation once again.

The bird is at the Oxbow Lake Preserve, open to the public, but there is no parking, so one is required to park in a nearby residential area.  Directions:  from the BW Parkway, take Rte 198 WEST towards Laurel, and go to the second traffic light and turn right on Russett Green WEST.  Go about 3/4 mile and turn left onto Oxbow Rd.  After about 1/2 mile turn right onto Lost Creek, then take the first right onto Bayou Bend.  Make the first right onto Beaver Creek till it ends in a short distance, then make the elbow to the left, and there are some parking spaces on the right.  These spaces are apparently for residents of the local townhomes, but there were several available at 7 this morning.  From here, walk straight ahead through the trees (or find a nearby path), across the road, and continue straight through the woods till you see the lake below.  Because of the trees and laurel, there is no clear view of the lake, and scanning will probably be required from several vantage points.  It's probably best to stay up on the hill where there is a better view than down close to the water's edge, which is not very accessible, and doesn't offer that much clearer a view.  The gallinule was about half way across the lake, essentially in the middle from the vantage point described, perhaps just under 100 yards away.  It stayed in one place while we viewed it, sometimes totally stationary and sometimes on top of the vegetation feeding.

Morning hours are best from the vantage point described.  The area is pretty wild; there are ways to get to the other side of the lake, but I don't know of them.  A footpath goes part way around the lake.

Stan Arnold
Glen Burnie