I have been checking the nesting site for Yellow-crowned Night-Herons along 
Sligo Creek in Silver Spring on a daily basis (sometimes twice a day) for 
about three weeks. This morning, March 25, they were back - a pair at the 
nest site just upstream from the tennis courts at Sligo Creek Parkway and 
Piney Branch Road. The nests from last year (at least two) and the two new 
arrivals were visible from a footbridge that crosses the creek near the 
tennis courts.

I also monitored the nest site very carefully last year to determine a 
return date, which was March 28.

Also seen and heard near the nest site:

Mourning Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe (1)
Blue Jay
American Crow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Carolina Wren
American Robin
European Starling
Louisiana Waterthrush (1)
Eastern Towhee
White-throated Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
American Goldfinch

Tom Stock
Silver Spring, Md.
altomomatic at verizon dot net