This is a little late, but a group of us saw several birds of note
while birding several Frederick County locations.
At Lilypons we had fairly good looks at a Virginia Rail along the
trail across the pond from the observation platform. Our sparrows were
overwhelmingly Song Sparrows, but a few Fox, and one White-crown. We
saw several Wilson's Snipe, and a very active Red-shouldered Hawk.
At Noland's Ferry Nico Sarbanes spotted a pale oriole which we all
soon saw well. Judging by the Sibley illustrations, it was an immature
female Baltimore Oriole, not something more exotic like a Bullock's.
At the Burkittsville pond on Route 17, we saw a variety of waterfowl
as daylight faded away. The best was a Long-tailed Duck. Others were
American Wigeon,
American Black Duck, Mallard, Northern Shoveler, Ring-necked Duck,
Scaup sp., Bufflehead, Hooded Merganser, Ruddy Duck, and of course
lots of Canada Geese. Unfortunately, we could not locate the Redhead
that Kevin saw earlier.
Our group consisted initially of Cathy Carroll, visiting from
Michigan, Gail Frantz, Paul Noel, Mark Linardi, and me. Nico Sarbanes
joined us at Lily Pons. We also had a quick visit from Kevin Graff
there doing a whirlwind tour of about half the state of Maryland.
Steve Sanford
Randallstown, Baltimore County
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