Hi all --

Our last morning at Rock Creek Park DC for a while, if not for the autumn, as Barry and I leave for England tomorrow and will be gone 9 days. (Maryland/DC listers, look out for rarities which will undoubtedy show up the moment we are gone!) The cold front definitely brought the "feel" of autumn but still, almost no Yellow-rumps (not complaining!) yet. We started at the Stable area, which had a active few minutes right at 7:15 with multiple warblers as well as kinglets and vireos, not all ID'd. No tanagers or grosbeaks, lots of robins and flickers and a few jays passing over. Highlight for me (and Gary Allport) were three RED-THROATED LOONS (or as he and Barry would say, Red-throated Divers) flying SW and not too high -- over the Stable. This was a DC bird for both of us! Went then to Maintenance Yard and Miitary Field. The Yard held a Lincoln's Sparrow and (in the Yard parking lot) a Gray-cheeked Thrush. Folks birding at the Ridge saw about the same species. 

Migrants were fairly diverse but numbers falling:

Warblers: Black-and-White (2), Blackpoll (2), Baybreasted (1, Gary saw it), Black-throated Blue (5), Black-throated Green (1-2), Chestnut-sided (1), Magnolia (4), Nashville (2), Palm (2, yellow), Parula (1), Pine (1), Redstart (1), Yellow-rump (Myrtle) (2-3). Yellowthroat (7).

Other Migrants: Sharpshinned Hawk (2), Broad-winged Hawk (1), Red-throated Loon (3), Caspian Tern (we think, distant looks, 6), Sapsucker (3), Phoebe (5), Red-eyed Vireo (4), Blue-headed Vireo (3), Swainson's Thrush (1), GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH (1), Catbird (~12), Brown Thrasher (2), House Wren (6-8), Ruby-crowned Kinglet (~15), Golden-crowned Kinglet (~10), Chipping Sparrow (2), LINCOLN'S SPARROW (1), Swamp Sparrow (5), White-throated Sparrow (~20).

Gail Mackiernan and Barry Cooper
Colesville, MD