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Highlights from Blue Mash, Saturday April 21

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Rick Sussman

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Sat, 21 Apr 2007 22:01:59 EDT

Hi all,
 I got out early to Blue Mash this morning before the planned field  trip 
from MBC.  My first good find was a singing Pine Warbler in the trees  along the 
entrance road. My first thought was a female Black-throated Green but  then it 
began to trill, quite beautifully. A nice surprise and #170 for my park  
list. The big pond held 40+ DC Cormorants, 5 Great Blue Herons, buffleheads, a  
nice pair of Wood Ducks, and Killdeer. A single Caspian Tern flew over and back  
and forth between ponds.
 
A single Swamp Sparrow was lurking in the fenceline area, as were  
Yellow-rumps and Palm Warblers. A Carolina Wren was seen and I saw my FOY House  Wren 
too.
 
As I approached the small pond I began watching a swallow which was  
"dipping" in the water as it skimmed, and as I was trying to ID it, it flew off.  
Looked like a N. Rough-winged (2 of which I later saw perched in a small tree  
there). I was getting ready to leave back to the main trail when I happened to  
glance over at the wet "slough" which feeds into the pond, and I noticed a slim 
 head and neck peering up at the sky; one of my most sought after birds for 
this  park finally showed up, right where expected. AMERICAN BITTERN (#171!). I 
called  a friend who was behind me and he joined me for great looks. Then I 
called Mark  England who was leading a Montgomery Bird Club field trip (moving 
along slowly  behind us) and told him where to look. Eventually word spread 
and nearly  everyone at Blue Mash today enjoyed excellent looks at quite close 
range of this  hard to spot bird.
 
 Other nice finds included at least 3 Broad-winged Hawks,  Sharp-shinned 
Hawk, Cooper's Hawk, American Kestrel, Red-tailed and  Red-shouldered Hawks, 
Chimney Swifts, Osprey, Savannah, Song, White-throated,  (White-crowned seen by 
others), Chipping, Field Sparrows, Juncos, and lots of  towhees, Brown Thrashers 
everywhere, BG Gnatcatchers, RC Kinglets, lots of  Flickers, a lone EASTEN 
MEADOWLARK, YR Warblers, Phoebes, lots of bluebirds and  Tree Swallows, Barn 
Swallos, etc.
 
I had about 59 species, with others sighting bring the total to over 60. A  
very pleasant morning, with 2 new species for my park list!

Rick Sussman
Ashton,MD

 



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