Hey Tom, my wife and I saw 1 Yellow-crowned Night Heron at 
exactly the spot you mentioned Sunday afternoon -- the bird 
was crouching by the stream, easily seen from the footbridge 
(although another passerby had to point it out to us!). 
Thanks!  Couldn't stay long unfortunately -- we were rushing 
between open houses in the area. :)

D

On Sat, 25 Mar 2006, Thomas Stock wrote:

> 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

-- 
Derek C. Richardson, Ph.D. (CANTAB) ________
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