Saturday was the BBC's annual spring field trip to Halethorpe Ponds. Gloria  
Campbell from Patuxent Audubon and Debbie Terry of the BBC joined me for a  
chilly, not-too-birdy, but pleasant walk. Obviously Halethorpe is nowhere in the 
 vicinity of Fort Howard. We had very few migrants and missed even some of  
the regular breeders, tallying 58 species for the walk with only 7 warbler  
species.
 
Prior to the field trip I made a pre-dawn run to Millers Island Road in  
hopes of hearing the reported Chuck-will's-widow. No luck with the Chuck, but I  
ran into Taylor McLean, who'd had the same idea. Taylor left for greener  
pastures while I made a brief stop at Southwest Area Park before meeting up with  
the field trip party. Below are some of the highlights.
 
Millers Island Road, 0500-0545
Great Crested Flycatcher
Wood Thrush
Ovenbird
Eastern Towhee
 
Southwest Area Park, 0615-0700
Yellow Warbler - 3
Common Yellowthroat - 9
Savannah Sparrow - 3
Swamp Sparrow - 1
Orchard Oriole - 1 first-year male singing
(Back on 4/30 I had a well-seen, singing Marsh Wren at SWAP right  beside the 
road.)
 
Halethorpe Ponds, 0745-1100
Wood Duck - 4
Double-crested Cormorant - 13
Great Blue Heron - 7
Great Egret - 5
Black-crowned Night-Heron - 1 adult
Osprey - 2
Bald Eagle - 2 adult, 1 first year
Killdeer - 1
Solitary Sandpiper - 1
Herring Gull - 1
Warbling Vireo - 4
Red-eyed Vireo - 4
Eastern Bluebird - 2 (pair)
Northern Parula - 5
Yellow Warbler - 8
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 20
Prairie Warbler - 1
American Redstart - 2
Common Yellowthroat - 10
Yellow-breasted Chat - 2
Chipping Sparrow - 3
Song Sparrow - 3
White-throated Sparrow - 6
Indigo Bunting - 4
Orchard Oriole - 2
 
Joel Martin
Catonsville, MD
 (mailto:[log in to unmask]) 
 



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