Got out locally for the first time in a month or so this evening and went up to the Hughes Hollow area.
   
  I stopped first at the Polo Grounds which look really dry. Ideal for Buff-breasted Sandpiper, but we are still a month short of their arrival.  There were about 20 Killdeer and slightly more Horned Lark, the latter including some very scaly juveniles.
   
  Hughes is also very dry.  So dry in fact mud flats have formed at the edges of the large impoundment.  A couple of Mourning Dove were strolling around on one part of the mudflats.  This is good shorebird habitat and this evening there were 3 Least Sandpiper, 1 Solitary Sandpiper and 2 Killdeer.
   
  The biggest surprise was an adult CATTLE EGRET that came in around 7:45 PM and landed in a tree just beyond the cross-dike.  This tree had about half a dozen Green Heron settled in it. The egret was in nice breeding plumage, with buffy plumes and crest; it took off after a while and circled around. It looked like it was searching for a good roosting spot but I did not see it land again.
   
  Nothing unusual in the songbird category, but it was strange to see single individuals of the following all gathered in one bush just before the woods, as if they were a feeding flock: House Wren, House Finch, Song Sparrow, Common Yellowthroat, and Blue-grey Gnatcatcher.  Swallows over the impoundments included Bank as well as Tree, Barn and Rough-winged.
   
  Regards
   
  Clive Harris
  Cabin John, MD