Five 3rd, 4th and 5th graders from Kennard MIddle School in Centreville 
went birding this morning to practice their skills for the upcoming World 
Series of Birding in Cape May.  Steiner Optics is sponsoring these kids 
and their team name is the Merlins.  In 3 hours of birding, they found 52 
species ... with just a little bit of help.

They birded the ponds on Rt. 309 (just off of Rt. 213 outside Centreville)
on the way to Tuckahoe.  The first small pond on the right held Snipe, 
Greater Yellowlegs and an Bald Eagle perched in the tree behind the pond.  
The second pond on the left held nothing special but the field across the 
street had Kildeer and a Red-tailed Hawk.

Tuckahoe held a few surprises for the kids.  They birded around the lake 
and the small pond to the left of the lake.  The highlights are:

    * 2 Blue Gray Gnatcatchers gathering nest material at the end of the 
pond.  (For Don Simonson --- still looking for gnatcatchers in QAC?)
    - 1 Brown Thrasher singing his head off.
    - several Yellow Rumped Warblers
    * at least 2 White Eyed Vireos singing but going unseen.
    - many pine warblers singing by the swings ... and yes, we did need to 
take a 15 minute swing break.  I found a Kingfisher while the kids burned 
more energy than I have.  Obligingly, the Kingfisher stayed put until play 
time was over.
    * 1 Louisiana Waterthrush singing in the lowlands across the street 
from the dam.
    * 1 Phoebee singing across from the entrance to the Equestrian Center.

The highlight for the kids was surprising a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers 
just after we got out of the car at one point at Tuckahoe.  We crossed the 
street and the birds flushed from trees about 20 feet in front of the 
kids.  Talk about excitement!

New topic:  I just had a Common Grackle bonk off of one of my windows.  I 
found it sitting on the ground with its wings spread.  I picked it up and 
held it for 5 minutes or so.  Its eyes were open and alert but it was in 
no mood to fly.  It finally perched on my finger, but still no flight.  I 
placed it on one of my small platform feeders in a tree and watched it for 
another 5 minutes.  It stood there, looked around and every now and then I 
would reach out and touch it ... it still didn't fly off.  I just went to 
check on it after typing this.  As I approached the platform, it flew.  
Good.

Jim Wilson
Queenstown