On this foggy Thursday morning, I decided to check out the Potomac River at Great Falls from the Maryland side.  Land birds were very quiet until the sun came out midmorning.  Highlights on the River were Common Mergansers, Bufflehead, 41 Ring-necked Ducks (and probably more of them too far upstream to see clearly without a scope), 12 Wood Duck, 30 American Coot (with probably more in the upstreamgroup), and at least 39 Great Blue Heron flying to and from and perching on nests in the rookery on the island above the water intake structure.  A Bald Eagle was sitting on its nest on the island.  Along the towpath, a Louisiana Waterthrush sang right above me, and I saw 4 Blue-gray Gnatcatchers.

Otherwise the usual suspects.

I also saw my first Zebra Swallowtail of Spring after the sun came out.

My complete list from eBird follows.

Jim Nelson
Bethesda, MD

Location:     Great Falls
Observation date:     4/10/08
Notes:     Great Blue Herons in and around rookery.  Bald Eagle on nest.
Number of species:     36

Canada Goose     25
Wood Duck     12
Mallard     16
Ring-necked Duck     41
Bufflehead     2
Common Merganser     6
Double-crested Cormorant     17
Great Blue Heron     39
Black Vulture     1
Turkey Vulture     9
Bald Eagle     1
American Coot     30
Mourning Dove     6
Belted Kingfisher     2
Red-bellied Woodpecker     8
Downy Woodpecker     4
Northern Flicker     8
Pileated Woodpecker     2
Blue Jay     16
American Crow     2
crow sp.     3
Tree Swallow     6
Carolina Chickadee     23
Tufted Titmouse     12
Carolina Wren     12
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher     4
American Robin     12
European Starling     1
Louisiana Waterthrush     1
Song Sparrow     1
Dark-eyed Junco     9
Northern Cardinal     8
Red-winged Blackbird     2
Common Grackle     54
Brown-headed Cowbird     8
American Goldfinch     13

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)