May 29, 2006

Paul and I spent the long weekend at our Grantsville SW Block
in Garrett County.

Highlights included an Olive-sided Flycatcher and two Orchard 
Oriole males.  These are both listed in Yellow Book as expected 
to occur less than every year in Garrett.  We had aggression between
the Orchard Oriole males, and are hopeful we'll see this species again 
later in the year.   We went back to Blackberry Lane where we saw 
Least Flycatchers last year.   We heard Least Flycatchers there again.  
We also found a housing lot-sized square of timber razed in this location.  
We had Bobolinks (no Grasshopper Sparrows, yet) on Bill Beitzel Road.  
The song will always be a highlight for me.  We added a female Hooded 
Warbler this trip. 

Chestnut-sided Warblers and Black-throated Blue warblers were particularly 
abundant.  We had our first pair of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, which are hard 
to find.  We talked to a couple of farmers about nesting birds in their 
barns. 
One farmer commented that he often used to get "little owls, not the big 
Barn Owls" but not had any in years.  He went on to volunteer that they used 
to have lots of Whip-poor-wills, but also hadn't heard them in years.  A 
local 
woman elsewhere in the block, when asked about owls, said both that they 
rarely hear owls and hear no Whip-poor-wills these days.  They both sounded 
as if they missed the Whip-poor-wills particularly.   A list of birds for the 
weekend in the block is below:

Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Turkey Vulture 
Accipiter Sp.
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Killdeer
American Woodcock
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Barred Owl
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Red-bellied Woodpecker (copulation)
Downy Woodpecker
Yellow-shafted Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Acadian Flycatcher
Least Flycatcher
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
White-eyed Vireo
Blue-headed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow (including with young) 
Common Raven
Tree Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow (carrying nesting material)
Barn Swallow (copulation)
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (pair)
Eastern Bluebird
Veery 
Hermit Thrush (including pair)
Wood Thrush
American Robin (copulation)
Gray Catbird (including pairs)
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler (copulation)
Black-throated Green Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Ovenbird (including a pair)
Louisiana Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat (copulation)
Hooded Warbler
Canada Warbler
Scarlet Tanager
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Song Sparrow (including on ground nest)
Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Bobolink
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Brown-headed Cowbird
Orchard Oriole
Baltimore Oriole
House Finch
American Goldfinch 
House Sparrow 

Elise and Paul Kreiss
Baltimore City