I ventured to the Liberty Watershed this morning in search of shorebirds. The lake is down five or six feet and the upper end of the lake is now about a mile south of its normal location when full. Access is difficult and I went in by a trail from Old Westminster Pike.
Many shorebirds were on the mud of the exposed lake bed. Unfortunately while I was studying them a Sharp-shinned Hawk scattered the flock in all directions and most were not seen again. Before the birds scattered I counted or estimated the following numbers:
Canada Goose 48
Mallard 1
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 2
Semipalmated Plover 4
Killdeer 25
Solitary Sandpiper 3
Lesser Yellowlegs 5
Least Sandpiper 75
Pectoral Sandpiper 7
Kingfisher 2
Other peeps may have been present but I did not get a chance to study all of them.
Along the way there were the following land birds:
Pewee 1 heard
Unidentified Empidonax 1
Phoebe 3
Red-eyed Vireo 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1 heard
Chestnut-sided Warbler 1, my first of the year
Magnolia Warbler 1
Blackburnian Warbler 1, also my first of the year
Redstart 1
Scarlet Tanager 1
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Bob Ringler
Eldersburg MD
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