Yesterday afternoon I went out to Mt Calvert to look for migrant waders
around Jug Bay, and as expected the only one I saw was great egret. I had
great consolation birds though - I was watching some palm warblers (4
western and one yellow) feeding very actively in an open area, when a bird
I thought it was a Lincoln sparrow passed quickly through my view in my
binoculars. It seemed odd because it has been my experience with this
species that they prefer brushy thick cover. I looked around for it but
couldn't find it. About 3-4 minutes later a small non-warbler landed on a
dead branch about 50 feet away. I put the scope on it and was very
pleased to see the LISP. I had a great view of it in the scope, and it
was very cooperative. I watched it about a minute, then it flew away and
I did not see it again.
As I was leaving at about 6:00, I saw 2 small grebes farther up the
river. When I scoped them I could see a red iris and profile of either a
horned grebe or eared, but since eared is so rare here I assumed horned.
It was strange - one was slightly but noticably larger, and had slightly
different plumage. Maybe one was an adult and one was a hatch year bird?
They were difficult to see because they stayed close to the spadderdock,
and at times would dissapear from view. I could see the head shape was
right for horned on the larger bird, but the smaller one was lacking the
obviousness of this field mark. They never dove.
I figured I would look for them again in the morn, and hoped for a better
view from the AA County side. All I found were fisherman and a tour
boat! I did have another nice consolation though. I saw Tennessee, black-
throated blue, black-throated green, magnolia and c. yellowthroat warblers.
While coming home, I also found a large flock of egrets (32) in the pond
at Charles Branch crossing on the east side of Croom Station Rd. These
birds were not there yesterday. I looked but all were greats.
I hope the weekend is a great one for migrants; good luck!
Jeff Shenot
Croom, MD. |