Hi Folks,

It was back-to-school night for parents in Howard Co., and to kill time
between the end of the school day and the beginning of the evening program,
I decided to head out to Montgomery Co. and take a hike around the Blue Mash
Nature Trail off of Zion Rd.  I ran into John Pangborn there, and he and I
did a couple-hour circuit of the property, picking up a few nice finds.
Things were fairly slow during the first half of the walk, as we picked up
mostly flycatchers:  Pewee (4), E. Phoebe (1), and Traill's (1).  Our one
interesting warbler was a PRAIRIE, and a BARRED OWL answered my call from
the wooded area in the back.  When we first passed the big (open) pond, only
mallards were present, but by the time we looped around and came back to the
pond from the opposite side, the scenery was totally different.  The first
bird we spotted there was a GLOSSY IBIS, and when we sorted through the
dozen or so swallows overhead we were able to pick out TREE, BANK, and
ROUGH-WINGED, mixed in with many Cedar Waxwings.  Soon we were able to spot
a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK make a sortie from a tree, then disappear behind an
embankment, and shortly thereafter a MERLIN came zipping over our heads.
The other significant group of birds was found at the other pond near the
far end of the entry road.  We immediately identified 6 Great Blue Herons,
two Great Egrets, and the immature LITTLE BLUE HERON, that has been there
for several days.  There were quite a few shorebirds, prompting me to run
back to the car to get the scope.  Once back, it took several scans looking
into the late afternoon sun to come up with these numbers:  SOLITARY (1),
LESSER LEGS (8), PECTORAL (6), LEAST (19) and SEMI SANDPIPER (1).  There
were also several teal enjoying the muck, all of which appeared to be
GREEN-WINGED TEAL.  Sparrows were surprisingly scarce, with only FIELD (3)
and SONG (1) being seen.

No migrant warblers or thrushes, but plenty of other interesting birds.

Stan Arnold
Glen Burnie