Hi all,
 I joined with Cathy Stragar, Cyndie Loeper and the youth group to do  a 
combo May Count birdathon. We tallied various number of species, as I was  
counting every bird seen or heard, but the kids had to see the bird or hear it  to 
count, so that list was a bit lower. My days list was 80 for the 8 hours I  was 
out. We began at Hughes Hollow, where at 6:15 AM we had our best find for  the 
day, a breeding plumaged adult GLOSSY IBIS which flew right over the  main 
dike and circled twice before landing very briefly. It took off and headed  away 
within about a minute of its arrival, but I managed a short video of it  
before it left.
 
We heard Sora and Least Bittern here as well, had nice looks at a mating  
pair of Yellow-billed Cuckoos, and in the fields along Hughes Rd saw 14  
Bobolinks and a Meadowlark. We headed to Black Hill Regional Park, where  things were 
rather slow, and ended at about 1:30 with 77 species. 4 Least  Sandpipers, a 
single Solitary and Killdeer were here at the pond in  Ashton.
 
Yesterday at Blue Mash I had a single Greater Yellowlegs on the big pond, a  
singing Veery in the woods, bringing my BMNT list to 148!
 
Send me your May Count results ASAP folks. Thanks for participating,
 
Rick Sussman
Ashton,MD
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