I have been having increasing trouble with my car's cooling system. So 
Thursday morning (May 29) I thought what better way to test it than to 
go to Western Maryland on this perfect day and see what happens!

First I stopped at Old Legislative Road in western Allegany County, 
and as usual there was a singing Henslow's Sparrow on a low bush up on 
the plateau east of the old rusty gate south of Klondike. It was 
75-100 feet off the dirt road. Surprisingly I heard only one 
Grasshopper Sparrow on this side. I was disappointed though not to see 
or hear any Golden-winged Warbler in the vicinity, or anywhere on my 
trip.

Next I went up Big Savage Mountain via Aaron Run Road, and that did 
the trick for testing the car. The temperature gauge started really 
rising. I stopped, and the cooling system hummed and gurgled and 
leaked far worse than ever before. Fortunately it did not die. I added 
about 3/4 of a bottle of handy coolant and it seemed OK, but obviously 
I was going to have to be very watchful and my birding would be, shall 
we say, constrained. By the way, I did not hear any Henslow's Sparrows 
up there, but there were two Mockingbirds - rare in Garrett County - 
in the same area as last year about a mile east of Westernport Rd.

Since I was almost on the top of the mountain anyway I continued over 
various back roads and through New Germany State Park, but the birds 
were very scarce. At least there were several singing Blue-headed 
Vireos and one or two Blackburnian Warblers at New Germany, but all 
were invisible. I went in the late afternoon to Mt Nebo WMA . It was 
even deader, although I heard an Alder Flycatcher and saw a 
Chestnut-sided Warbler.

Next morning I saw there was a GM dealer in Oakland ("Team One") so I 
stopped in. They quickly checked me out and said, at a minimum to get 
home, I should get a new thermostat, and listed hundreds of dollars of 
other related items like leaks and the water pump that I ought to take 
care of very soon. I decided, what the heck, why put it off any 
longer? So I rented a car for the day while they did the whole 
shebang.

By then it was pretty late in the morning. I went to Snaggy Mountain 
Road (near Swallow Falls), which always seems productive, and it was. 
At the swampy area where the "Dead End" road goes to the side (about a 
quarter-mile south from Cranesville Road) there was a singing Alder 
Flycatcher visible on a snag. It was slim and brown-looking. Right 
near the "Dead End" intersection there were some stubby-looking 
green-gray flycatchers making little chips that sounded like Least but 
they would not say "che-bek." One of them soon went straight to a 
nest! Later when I looked it up on the Net, from the pictures I found 
it indeed looked closest to a Least Flycatcher nest. Unfortunately my 
camera was in the car in the shop. If anyone cares to look, it was 
just south of the "Dead End" side road, maybe 30 feet on the swamp 
side (east) about eye-level in what I think is a large alder bush (!). 
These birds seemed to spend most of their time, though, in the dryer 
woods rather than the swamp. Also at this location were several 
Magnolia Warblers, a Canada, and a Chestnut-sided singing up a storm. 
They let me have nice looks at them. A Blackburnian remained 
invisible.

I went on to Swallow Falls State Park. I finally got good looks at 
several Blackburnian Warblers. Magnolias were abundant, and a few 
invisible Black-throated Greens sang. Blue-throated Vireos gave me one 
or two nice looks also.

After checking back at the shop, I went down to Norris Welch Road 
south of Oakland (the road ending at the sewage lagoon). I did not see 
any of the fabled Upland Sandpipers. However, there were singing 
Bobolinks and Meadowlarks galore, and another singing Alder 
Flycatcher, and an unambiguous Least Flycatcher singing "che-bek" 
repeatedly. I did not see any nests but I expect they were close.

My car was ready around 4 PM. Thanks to a sleepless night, I decided 
to skip Finzel Swamp and head home. Hey, I already had Alder 
flycatchers at three other locations anyway! In eastern Allegany 
County I felt a little more energetic and went up Troutman Road where 
I had seen Cerulean Warblers in the past. It was a lot steeper than I 
remembered and sent the temperature gauge up pretty high. However, 
there was no humming and hissing and loss of fluid like the day 
before! I did not find any Ceruleans this time, but confirming that 
the cooling system was now OK was a big relief. Maybe I can bird 
full-time on my next excursion.

Steve Sanford
Randallstown, Baltimore County
scartan^at^verizon^dot^net