Joy Bowen, Helen Patton, and I had an excellent morning's birding in 
the District of Columbia this morning, 5/17.

First, we caught up with the continuing CLAY-COLORED SPARROW near the 
WW2 Memorial at about 7:30 a.m.  Thanks to Dave Sperling for pointing 
out to us where he had just seen it.  It was singing only 
occasionally, but after about ten anxious minutes easily seen low 
down feeding on a weed stalk.  (And thanks to Jim Felley for 
reporting it on Friday, prompting me to want to search for it again 
after my last week's unsuccessful 2-hour search.)

The we saw some nice shorebirds on the Hains Point Golf course, 
including 2 SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER and about 7 LESSER 
YELLOWLEGS.  These were seen in company of Paul Pisano, Lisa Shannon, 
Rob Hilton and others.  Large numbers of golfers and even larger 
numbers of bikers and runners made birding impossible  after about 
8:30 a.m.  Gary Allport and Frank Hawkins, who posted earlier, were 
smart to get here before 6 a.m.  Hains Point must be the only golf 
course in North America that permits play when most of the fairways 
are waterlogged and the bunkers more suited to toy boat sailing than 
sand blasts.

Later in the morning at Anacostia Park, we encountered 2 singing 
WILLOW FLYCATCHERs  and numerous YELLOW WARBLERs.  Paul Pisano saw a 
Lincoln's Sparrow there at about the same time, he told us.

We then went on to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, where the most notable 
bird was an adult YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON walking unconcernedly on 
the main dikes in the presence of quite a few (non-birder) visitors.

Mike Bowen
Montgomery Bird Club
Bethesda, MD

D.H. Michael Bowen
8609 Ewing Drive
Bethesda, MD  20817
Telephone: (301) 530-5764
e-mail:  dhmbowenATyahooDOTcom