Today was the planned field trip of the Anne Arundel Bird Club to the Little
Patuxent Oxbow Lake Nature Preserve. Weather played its cold and rain cards
and everyone else folded their hands. Jay Sheppard and I parked just outside
of the Oxbow to wait for intrepid birders who hoped (like us) for a break in the
rain. We planned to take everyone who showed up around to the other not-so-
formal entrances into the Oxbow, so that they might come back on a better
day to explore it for themselves. The weather did break sometime after 9am
and we headed out to see what was there. The black flys on top of the water
were very cold and easy pickings for the swallows. We were standing lakeside
and the swallows were flying so close to us that bins were not needed to see
them. What I thought was breathtaking was the white band across the Barn
Swallow's tail feathers - I had never seen Barn Swallows so closely. The
Northern Rough-winged Swallows perched nearby giving us long looks at them
with both front and back views. The FOY EASTERN KINGBIRD was the
highlight. Here's the list:
Pied-billed Grebe
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Canada Goose
Trumpeter Swan #960
Wood Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Green-winged Teal
Ring-necked Duck
Osprey (2)
Bald Eagle (2 imm)
American Coot
Greater Yellowlegs
Wilson's Snipe
Caspian Tern (8)
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
EASTERN KINGBIRD
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Tree Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Barn Swallow
Caroline Wren
American Robin
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Marcy Stutzman
Russett, MD
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