July 12-16, 2007, in GARRETT COUNTY, extreme western Maryland, my first
trip there.  Liz & Harry Armistead.

3 days, once there, of sleeping in, naps, eating out, and moderate
exploration in a charming, peaceful setting.  We failed to see or hear most
of the northern birds for which this part of MD is celebrated.  It didn't
help that we visited most of the sites in mid-day, late in the singing
season, and on windy days.

Carey Run Sanctuary of the Maryland Ornithological Society.  A delightful
haven of 162 acres.  This is our base, the old house built in 1887. 
Elevation 2,440 feet.  Several miles of trails, a stream, a small pond
(with Green Frogs plunkin' away), hemlock forest, rich deciduous woodlands,
grassy fields full of wildflowers on sloping hillsides punctuated with
dozens of nesting boxes, and various areas with several species of pines.  
 

Each evening and morning we are treated to a Wood Thrush chorus, every bit
as ethereal and enchanting as any thrush chorus I have heard in Manitoba,
Maine or Ontario.  

THURSDAY, JULY 12.  269 miles.  Clear or fair, mid-70s, NW 5-10.

On the way:  1 Common Raven at Sideling Hill in Washington County, 2 more
in Allegheny County, new for my MD list, 339th species.

Arrive 4:30 P.M.  It doesn't take long to find 2 Black-capped Chickadees
and to have 3 Ruffed Grouse encounters, Maryland birds 340 & 341.  28 other
species.  

Other Carey Run birds today:  1 Baltimore Oriole, 1 Blue-headed & 2
Red-eyed vireos, 5 robins, 6 catbirds (an active nest in a shrub right next
to the house, much carrying of food), 1 bluebird, 2 Mourning Doves, 1 Hairy
& 1 Downy woodpecker, 4 Barn Swallows, 2 House Wrens, 1 yellowthroat,
singing Rose-breasted Grosbeak & Scarlet Tanager, 1 Song, 1 Chipping & 2
Field sparrows (1 carrying food), 2 towhees, 1 phoebe, 1 Indigo Bunting, 3
gldfinches, 11 starlings, 3 cardinals, 4 Turkey Vultures, a Wood Thrush, 1
adult female Sharp-shinned Hawk, a woodcock at dusk flushed from the drive
and landed in plain sight near the house, and, finally, a Barred Owl giving
its full call as we lay in bed reading.  

Additional species nearby:  House Sparrow, Rock Pigeon, 3 nighthawks (over
Frostburg at dusk), 5 Chimney Swifts (ditto), and a kestrel.

NON-AVIAN TAXA.  Liz found a toad in the ground-level Ladies Room, out on
the back entrance area, probably an American Toad.  1 baby and 1 grown
cottontail rabbit.  2 Monarchs, 8 lovely fritillaries (Meadow?) in Folk
Field, a duskywing.   

Dinner at Giuseppe's in Frostburg.  The nice bookstore in Frostburg has 2
new books I wanted to buy but didn't:  an autobiography by Pulitzer Prize
winner Bernd Heinrich, who also wrote "Bumblebee economics" as well as
books on ravens and Canada Geese, and an environmental book by John &
Teresa Kerry.

FRIDAY the 13th.  overcast mostly, 61-low 70s, calm becoming NW 10-15.  34
species.

Species not found yesterday:  1 Black-billed Cuckoo, a male Ruby-throated
Hummingbird (investigating the foxglove), 6 American Crows, 1 Tufted
Titmouse, 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker, a flicker, 3 Tree Swallows, 1 Blue Jay,
10 Cedar Waxwings, a Yellow-breasted Chat, and a singing male
Chestnut-sided Warbler.  Barred Owl calls again at 2 A.M.

We took a long, slow walk in the morning.  Only checked a few of them, but
nest boxes 48, 53 & 56 all have 5 House Wren eggs, 39 has at least 3
(couldn't see completely into it).  Another box has active bluebirds
carrying food to it.  A Silver-spotted Skipper is a new trip bug.  Big
dragonfly of some kind.  2 Eastern Chipmunks, one of the RUNNING headfirst
down a tree trunk.  

Finzel Swamp.  Visit here from 2-4 P.M.  Very densely vegetated, shrubby
swamp nestled in a hollow in the hills.  Has a few living Tamaracks, about
at their southern limit, a deciduous conifer.  Hundreds of other large
trunks of dead trees are in the swamp.  I think they are Tamaracks (a.k.a
Larch or Hackmatack), too.  Anyone know for sure?  I have asked 5 others
who I thought would know but they don't.  

Finzel is a Nature Conservancy (TNC) property, full of blueberries on which
catbirds (15), grackles (8), waxwings (30), and robins (45) are feasting. 
There's a Beaver lodge.  3 Green Frogs.  Trails poorly maintained.  No map
or signage other than a beautiful plaque that extols at length TNC, urging
one to join (I'm a life member), but with no address or website, plus the
entrance sign with a hard-to-discern Northern Saw-whet Owl depicted.  Most
interesting bird is a shaggy female Purple Finch in heavy molt.  7 Swamp
Sparrows sing.  Lots of wild roses, a few tiger lillies, a profusion of
flowers in the meadows, a small pond, lots of lace.  Known locally as
Cranberry Swamp apparently.  Many fritillaries and a Pearlcrescent.  With
no map or pamphlet hard to tell how long the trail is or where it goes but
I think we walk about halfway around the swamp.  19 bird species.  Some
poison ivy.     

The house at Carey Run has the sort of random contents one might expect in
an old (established 1962) sanctuary house: a mounted Ruffed Grouse,
bobwhite, and, incongruously, Northern Lapwing.  Faded prints by artists I
associate with my childhood, including Jacob Bates Abbott and Lynn Bogue
Hunt.  A hit-or-miss library, hitting on the heavy side with 81 copies of
"The mammals of western Maryland" by W. Bruce Taliaferro (Appalachian
Environmental Laboratory, 49 pages), one of which, after leaving a suitable
donation, I liberated.  There's a potpourri of books, including "Vulture
biology and management."  One room has a 1973 issue of "Outdoor world". 
Gracing the walls are framed drawings by local artists and children.  The
place has the charm of yesteryears, that still works.  One room has 4
double bunks.  I'd like to see 8 people dressing simultaneously in there. 
Another room has the same Albrecht Durer painting of a small owl that used
to hang on the wall of one of our rooms several houses ago, but has since
disappeared.  The old wood-burning stove reminds me of the one in my
grandmother's house 'Tranquility'.   

Earlier this spring and summer Justin Bredlau lived here, doing Swamp
Sparrow research for the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center.  His entry in
the Carey Run guestbook states he had found 19 of their nests with eggs as
of May 25, not here, but in other areas of Garrett County.

Supper at Au Petit Paris in Frostburg.  Proprietress has faultless French
acent that compensates for the rather poor bread.  Escargots, filet de sole
meuniere, and 2 glasses of wine for me.  Good.

"6% grade next 13 miles".  "Runaway truck exit one quarter mile".  Not used
to mountain driving, especially on the small roads.  Smell the brakes
burning one time after depressing them too long.  Roller coaster rides,
near out-of-control descents (to save the brakes) going down, then revving
up to 3,000 to get up the hill.  How did I ever make it up (and down) Pikes
Peak and Mt. Evans (14,400') years ago?  

SATURDAY, JULY 14.  Clear, a delightful 49 degrees at dawn rising to 81
later on, winds SW 10-15.

New birds for our Carey Run list today: 1 each of Pileated Woodpecker,
Eastern Meadowlark & Eastern Kingbird.  See the woodcock again.  Mammals: 1
Woodchuck, 2 Eastern Cottontails, 1 deer & 1 bat.  Barred Owl calls again.

Today we drive west all the way to the West Virginia line and spend from 11
A.M. until 1 P.M. in legendary Cranesville Bog, much of which is in WVA. 
This is another Nature Conservancy preserve, a unique subarctic swamp
nestled in a high valley with unusual plant communities that include
Tamaracks, sundews, spruces, pines, hemlocks, rhododendrons, alders, and an
extensive quaking sphagnum bog ("land of the trembling earth"), a relict of
when this region's climate was much colder.  Northern Water Shrews are here
but we do not see any.  

Among the 22 birds we do see or hear in this area are a Red-shouldered
Hawk, a Ruffed Grouse that goes rocketing off through the pine forest, 16
Red-eyed & 2 Blue-headed Vireos, 16 yellowthroats, 4 Chestnut-sided
Warblers, 5 Swamp Sparrows, 8 towhees, a Cooper's Hawk, 3 Common Ravens & 3
Grasshopper Sparrows.  The boardwalk takes one through the heart of the bog
which also has cattails, Scirpus, and much other wetland vegetation.  The
TNC reserve here encompasses about 560 acres, but, as with Finzel Swamp,
lacks any maps or helpful signage.  We did not see that any trails reach
the sizeable coniferous stands on the north and south ends of the swamp,
perhaps one reason we missed seeing the dozen or so northern species,
especially warblers, that the bog traditionally harbors.  

On the way back to Carey Run we stop at the state welcome center high above
Youghiogheny River Lake.  The lake is receeding in the drought with what
looks like good shorebird habitat around the edges as well as 4 Great Blue
Herons stalking the shallows.  About 150 cars, kayakers mostly, are parked
along the river at Friendsville.   

Dinner in Frostburg at a good Mexican restaurant.

SUNDAY, JULY 15.  Fair becoming overcast, 60-78, winds SW 10-15, some
sprinkles in late afternoon.  Hear the Black-billed Cuckoo again.  See a
Question Mark.  

Catch a harmless, gentle 1.5' Garter Snake at Carey Run.  Later in the day,
6:10 P.M., we see a Gray Catbird on the ground, near its nest, making a
fuss over the snake.  The catbird leaves when it sees me (I effect most
women the same way) but the harmless little snake stays and, having already
been provoked by the catbird, strikes at us repeatedly.  Work out, little
fella!  You don't HAVE to take it.  

In the morning we head to a large area, many hundreds of acres of grassy
fields full of flowers, thistles, some blackberry thickets, chicory, and
butter-and-eggs.  A rolling, inland prairie of sorts.  I'm told this is
something of a secret place but I seem to recall organized field trips
coming here to look for HENSLOW'S SPARROWS.  But I'll not say where it is
or what it is called.  

I do hear one Henslow's, my first in Maryland in over 10 years.  On the way
here the forests swarm with Gypsy Moths, so damaged by them that Indigo
Buntings sing in their midst.  Find a female Box Turtle on the road.

"The Henslow's Sparrow perches atop a weed, from which it utters one of the
poorest vocal efforts of any bird; throwing back its head, it ejects a
hiccoughing 'tsi-lick'.  As if to practice this "song" so that it might not
always remain at the bottom of the list, it often hiccoughs all night
long."  Roger Tory Peterson's guide, 2nd rev. & enl. ed., p. 171, 1947.

Other sightings here: 1 kestrel, a hen Wild Turkey with 5 poults the size
of quail but capable of flight, 2 Field & a Grasshopper sparrow, 8
meadowlarks, 2 Indigo Buntings, 20 Barn Swallows, and a Red-tailed Hawk.  I
almost step on a small fawn and see 3 does.  

At mid-day Bill Devlin and his friend come to the sanctuary to conduct
their study of what's going on in Carey Run's nesting boxes.  What's going
on is mostly House Wrens.  They tell us Black Bears sometimes pull over the
nest box posts.

In the afternoon we head to nearby Wolf Swamp, which has the largest
northern evergreen forest we'll see, mostly hemlocks, but Wolf is said to
have Maryland's largest stand of Red Spruce.  The dark forest interior,
accented by ferns and some birch, is impressive.  Many of the evergeens are
over 100' high.  We find a Black-throated Green Warbler, a Golden-crowned
Kinglet, 3 Solitary Vireos (singing simultaneously), the trip's only
kingfisher, and a Hairy Woodpecker.  Also 1 deer.  Under one hemlock is a
large Red Squirrel midden that has been torn apart, probably by a Black
Bear.

CRANK!  A Great Blue Heron calling high above us somewhere at dusk,
obscured by the trees.  Calls again.  There it is!  High and majestic and
heading to the SSE, our only new Carey Run bird today.  Also that evening,
from 8:45-9:10 P.M., 34 bats sally forth from one of Carey Run's buildings.
 Dinner out at the Hen House west of Frostburg on Rt. 40A.  Good, standard
American fare. 

MONDAY, JULY 16.  Headin' home.  291.7 miles.

Carey Run.  Barred Owl cuts loose at 3:20 A.M.  A Black-billed Cuckoo calls
while we breakfast at the picnic table.

An imm. Bald Eagle flies over the mountainside at mile 6 of Route 70
(Washington County).

Antietam National Battlefield (Washington County) SE of Hagerstown. 
Extremely parched here.  The fields are brown.  3 Woodchucks.  Most of the
time when I see them their rudimentary tails are not very furry but the
ones here are well bushed-out.  2 Vesper Sparrows singing prettily from
phone wires help relieve somewhat the almost overwhelming solemnity and
poignancy of this place.

A Great Egret over the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg.

Did not see a single mockingbird, cowbird or Carolina Wren in Garrett
County, Maryland's "North Country."

Many thanks to Charlotte Folk, a real lady, for helping to make our stay at
Carey Run such a good one.

Best to all.-Henry ("Harry") T. Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia,
PA 19119-1225.  215-248-4120.  Please, any off-list replies to: 
harryarmistead at hotmail dot com  (never, please, to 74077.3176 ....)