This a.m. (Monday) at 9:15 a.m. I was headed west on East-West 
Highway and turned right onto Beach Drive, this in North Chevy Chase. 
About 200 yards after this turn, on my right, I spotted an adult 
yellow-crowned night-heron hunting in an mowed grass field within 
Rock Creek Park. There was no pull-off at the spot, but I doubled 
back and was able to stop on the road for about 20 seconds (a miracle 
in itself) and see the heron grab something cicada-sized and gulp it 
down. I have no idea what it was. I'm sure it wasn't a cicada since 
it's too early. It was raining and overcast. I wouldn't expect it to 
feed at that time on a sunny a.m. Anyway, this was about three miles 
from the Elmhirst nest site. I believe that Mike Bowen and someone 
else had reported seeing a yellow-crowned in this general area during 
spring. It's not possible to confirm if this is one of the Elmhirst 
pair, but night-herons do wander far and wide to forage. Two weeks 
ago, I saw a lone night-heron fly into trees at North Chevy Chase 
Park off Jones Bridge Rd. This is roughly between the Elmhirst 
Parkway nest and where I saw this morning's bird. (On this bird, my 
general impression was lanky and "longer-legged" than B-C N-H but I 
did not have binos and only saw the bird at a distance.) Back near 
the nest, we've not recently seen a yellow-crowned night-heron 
feeding at Stone Ridge (Cedar Lane and 355) as first reported in 
spring, although last week I saw one fly over that intersection at 9 
p.m. headed west from the nest area. My guess is that they are 
heading in all directions to gather enough food for their hungry young.

In other news, I saw the black-bellied whistling-duck at the Rio lake 
this a.m. around 10 a.m. It was visible from the bridge over the lake 
near the Rio Grande Cafe.

Howard Youth

Bethesda, MD