Hi all,
 I led my once a month trip to Blue Mash yesterday for the Montgomery  Bird 
Club. My goal of finding something red, white and blue fell short on the  white 
end; the White-eyed Vireo was a no-show! We did have most of the "blue"  
birds though, with BLUE GROSBEAK (male, only the 2nd time this season I have  seen 
it here), E. Bluebird, Indigo Bunting (a brilliant male singing away), Blue  
Jay, and Belted Kingfisher (no Grt Blue Heron though). For red we had N.  
Cardinal and Scarlet Tanager.
 
Our very best finds however were a single LEAST SANDPIPER feeding along the  
shore of the Big Pond, either a very early (I suspect) or a very late migrant, 
 and a pair (!!) of NORTHERN BOBWHITE's calling from within a couple of 
hundred  yards of one another near the small pond. We were within about 30 feet of 
one,  which sat hunkered down at the base of a small cedar tree inside the 
fence of  the small pond, calling and defying us to see it (I never did). But it 
is  exciting to simply hear them and know that they possibly breed here. It is 
 becoming an increasingly difficult bird to find in Montgomery County.
 
The walk was well attended with a full 8 participants, and we found 54  
species. The weather was not as cooperative as the weatherman said it would be,  
being overcast and muggy, but not as bad as earlier in the week. 
 
P.S. The butterflies which we kept seeing but couldn't ID were Common  
Wood-nymphs, and the small blue one was a Gray Hairstreak. Lots of Pearl  Crescents 
and a few Monarchs too. The purple flower by the pond was Marsh  Skullcap, a 
member of the mint family. Dragonflies were around in good numbers  too, by 
both ponds.
 
Rick Sussman
Ashton,MD
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