Howard rocks! This is MDOsprey at its best -- a great bird, promptly reported, explicit directions. Like Howard I've waited a long time for this bird and figured this might be my best chance. So I took a shot (rolled the dice?) and got down to Woodend a little before 1:00. I walked slowly up and down the left trail several times, until something big and green flushed from the milkweed near the first bluebird box on the left and dived into the shrubs at the woods edge.  It was very, very hard to resist poking around for it, but I figured the bird wanted to be in the meadow, not the woods, and sooner or later would show itself. After a few tense minutes I saw twigs moving near the base of the bluebird box, and got ready. Finally the bird became visible, climbing up through the tangles -- it reminded me of the Sora at Hughes Hollow last year, clambering through the brush with those long legs and toes. My view was only a few seconds, but unobstructed at a distance of less than 10 feet. I didn't see all the field marks that Howard did, but the size, eye ring, brown head, subdued coloring, and the climbing behavior, pretty much clinched it. It took off across the meadow and seemed to go down near the bird feeders on the right side, but I couldn't relocate it. Lots of Yellowthroats for comparison, though.
 
Whew, another one I can relax about. Thank you, Howard.
 
Joel Martin
Catonsville, MD

 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: 
To: 
Sent: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 10:48 AM
Subject: [MDOSPREY] Connecticut warbler at Woodend


I was finally able to break free from work for a few hours. My goal: to scour underbrush for a Connecticut warbler, a bird I've missed in 28 years of birding. (I was inspired by the MD Osprey's scattered reports of this bird in the area.) 
 
My first stop: Woodend's goldenrod-filled meadows. I chose the one leading up from the gatehouse to the mansion. Took the left trail headed up to the mansion and studied three or four common yellowthroats along the way. Then I headed down the right trail. An odd, larger warblerish bird with a greenish back flushed and flew to the left trail I'd just traversed. I backtracked and tried to be patient. Then a tan-headed bird with a neat, thinnish white eyering popped up for a few seconds. Caught a view of its long pink tarsi and yellow vent to belly and the very subtle melding of this yellow with the tannish breast. The bill was flesh-colored at the base, long, and fairly heavy. The bird dropped to the grassy trail edge for a moment before vanishing. I was 95% sure of what I'd seen. 
 
I went back to my car, sketched the bird, and consulted Sibley. All seemed right. I headed back to the site about a half hour later and re-found the bird. This time, a far better look, as it bobbed up and down on a shrub stem about three feet above the ground. Dull whitish throat surrounded by tan down to breast. Even dullish yet rich yellow below that, all the way to near the tail tip thanks to the long ventral feathers. The heavy bill was more evident on this prolonged view. The pink tarsi and honking big pink feet were noticeable. I'd always thought the feet on the first -edition National Geo. field guide painting of the Connecticut warbler was exaggerated, and apparently the artists/editors did too, because they covered the feet with leaves in subsequent editions. But now I don't think the painting was way out of line. With the heavy bill and eye ring, the warbler's head had a thrush-like aspect. Saw too the long wings and greenish olive above. This all left no doubt and felt to me, given my desperation to get out and look for a Connecticut warbler, like going into a casino with four quarters and striking it big on a slot machine. 
 
Here are directions for this morning's bird: 
 
(In Montgomery County) After turning off Jones Mill Road and onto the Woodend (Audubon Naturalist Society headquarters) entrance road, pull into the first parking spaces on the right, at the gatehouse. Cross the street and you will be facing the large meadow that heads up to the mansion. Take the left path, which runs between the woodland edge on the left and the meadow on the right. The bird was seen twice in one hour near the second bluebird box, on the left. It perched in shrubs there and once briefly landed on the ground at the trail's edge. A bare (dead) horizontal branch protrudes from the woods here and is another landmark. When I left it, it had flown across the trail (on the right side) and dove into milkweed not 8 feet off the trail. 
 
Hope someone else has luck finding it! 
 
Howard Youth 
 
Bethesda, MD 
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