> Hi Folks,
>
> My wife Elaine and I visited Ft. McHenry early yesterday afternoon (Wed.
> 5/18) and had to wait about an hour for the WESTERN KINGBIRD to show up.
It
> perched on the rail fence where it would have been visible from the road
> while driving in.  Other birds of interest were a SNOWY EGRET in high
> breeding plumage (dark orange lores) in the marshy area along with a
COMMON
> TERN and three FORSTER'S TERNs over the open water.
>
> During the evening we took a walk around Southwest Area Park (SW Balt.
Co.)
> and were treated to a flyby BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON and a single COMMON
> NIGHTHAWK at dusk.  Besides numerous singing Yellow Warblers, Blackpoll
> Warblers, and Common Yellowthroats, a male PROTHONOTARY WARBLER was a
> surprise--a certain migrant as there is no habitat for this bird here.  A
> YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT made a brief sortie across some bushes never to be
seen
> again but providing ceaseless noise.  The only sparrows were two SAVANNAHs
> and several Songs; a single first-year male ORCHARD ORIOLE sang
incessantly
> near the park entrance.  Also, a pair of BROWN THRASHERs along the trail
> above the bridge was an unusual find for this place.
>
> Earlier in the day I took a lunch-time drive out to Carrs Mill Rd. in
Howard
> Co. where the SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER was still present in the road-side
> pond, in the company of a SEMIPALMATED PLOVER and LEAST SANDPIPER.  While
> returning to work, a vocal PRAIRIE WARBLER let out its ascending buzzes
> along Rte 32, two miles north of Rte 108 (Clarksville).
>
> Stan Arnold
> Glen Burnie
> 
>
>
>