I spent the morning driving throughout a good part of Washington County from 5:30 AM to 10 AM looking for shorebirds. About 2 and 1/2 weeks ago John Hubbell, Hans Holbrook and I did a longer version of the same circuit. Several stops today were not possible due to workers at several sewage treatment plants. Here are the results:

Beaver Creek Wetland area : 3 Solitary Sandpipers ( they seem like they are always there) and 1 Spotted Sandpiper; also had one Great Egret here.

Green Brier State Park: Nada; no shorebirds and reallly nothing of interest

There were 2 Great Egrets perched in a dead tree near the  Albert M. Powell Fish Hatchery along Rt. 66.

The lower pond at Mt. Aetna Nature Center had 5 Killdeer, but no other shorebirds. There was a male Baltimore Oriole at the water's edge that was picking at something off of the water's surface.

I then headed NW of Hagerstown to areas near The Centre of Hagerstown Mall/Shopping Center. At the very end of Hagers Crossing Blvd. in the back of a new housing development I found 2 Killdeer and 1 Semi-Palmated Plover on the dry edges of  an area that had several inches of water in it. The Semi-palm Plover was easily my best bird of the day.

As I was retracing my steps and reaching the west side of the mall I had a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron fly across the road and disappear in a wetland/ forest restoration area.

My last stop was at the end of Henson Blvd. Hagerstown Airport property. The only shorebirds were a pair of Killdeer. 

I had a company function and had to be in Harpers Ferry at 11 AM. With some free time in the afternoon I had nothing new to report along the Potomac River in Wash. Co. I made a quick drive over to Kerschner's Pond in Frederick County and had 5 species of swallows ( Barn, Tree, Rough-winged, Bank and Cliff).

Jim Green