Ann and I had a nice morning walk today at Hughes Hollow in Montgomery County.  Warm in the sun but a pleasant breeze off and on.  The effects of the drought on the impoundments is amazing.  We hadn't been to Hughes in over three weeks, and much more mud is showing with much smaller areas of water remaining.  Not as many birds as I would have thought, and I was surprised at the species we did not see.

As others have reported, Killdeer and Least Sandpipers were present on the mud, and Green Herons were flying around.  A Great Egret was stalking the edges of the remaining water in the East impoundment.  We had a nice Bald Eagle fly over and four Red-shouldered Hawks in a mini-kettle.  We thought we heard a Common Raven off to the West, but couldn't see it to verify.  Saw a couple of empidonax flycatchers as well.

A complete list follows from my eBird report.

Jim Nelson
Bethesda, Montgomery County, MD


Location:     Hughes Hollow - McKee Beshers WLMA
Observation date:     8/14/07
Number of species:     32

Great Blue Heron     2
Great Egret     1
Green Heron     9
Turkey Vulture     1
Bald Eagle     1
Red-shouldered Hawk     5
Killdeer     6
Least Sandpiper     5
Mourning Dove     5
Yellow-billed Cuckoo     1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird     2
Downy Woodpecker     1
Eastern Wood-Pewee     2
Eastern Phoebe     8
Great Crested Flycatcher     1
Eastern Kingbird     1
American Crow     2
Barn Swallow     1
swallow sp.     2
Carolina Chickadee     4
House Wren     1
Gray Catbird     6
Northern Mockingbird     1
Prothonotary Warbler     1
Common Yellowthroat     2
Song Sparrow     2
Northern Cardinal     1
Indigo Bunting     6
Red-winged Blackbird     1
Common Grackle     1
Baltimore Oriole     1
American Goldfinch     14