I finished my breeding counts here on Monday(6-18), so with the 
pleasant weather today I decided to come out and finish some odds and ends. 
Part of my work this year was to determine how many Prothonotary Warblers 
nest here.  This was in conjunction with the Important Bird Area program and 
something I have been interested in for the past couple of years, so my goal 
today was to check a couple of potential breeding areas that I haven't 
survey yet this season.
     The first area was west of the main impoundments.  With the dry weather 
I can walk in many areas that normally would be under water.  I didn't find 
any prothontaries here.  My recent readings indicate that prothonotaries 
nest in areas that are shaded.  This area has many potential nest sites but 
most of them are in the open.
      I did find  RED-HEADED WOODPECKER nest with the adults feeding 
nestlings and another adult to the west.  This is their traditional nesting 
area here.
    This was a GREAT EGRET in the large impoundment.  There have been 1-2 
here recently.
     I finished the day checking a large area west of Sycamore Landing Rd.. 
Here I found 5 new PROTHONOTARY WARBLERS, including one feeding fledglings. 
I think my season total is now 50 which is the number I told Mike Bowen I 
thought I could find at McKee-Beshers.
    The other noteworthy find was a male Scarlet Tanager feeding a fledgling 
cowbird.  During my 10 breeding counts I hadn't recorded any fledgling 
cowbirds, but after my last count on 6-18 I found a Yellow-throated 
Warbler(a rare host) feeding a cowbird along the towpath and saw an older 
cowbird that I never saw being fed- a nearby Wood Thrush was the most likely 
host.
    I heard 5 Northern Parulas today.  Three were singing the regular song, 
but two were singing what I call the buzzy version of the "I am lazy" call.

Paul Woodward
Fairfax City, VA