Left the house at 7 AM this morning and went to Viollette's Lock at the C & O Canal first. There was very little on the Potomac River. Most of the activity was in the trees on the west side of the parking area from 7: 30 to ~8:15. The following birds were seen:

Great Blue Heron   3
Bald Eagle  2 (one each imm. & adult soaring low over the Potomac River)
Double-crested Cormorant  1
Canada Goose  2
Wood Duck  2
Common Grackle  40
Red-eyed Vireo  6
Carolina Chickadee  4 
Carolina Wren  3
Cedar Waxwing  8
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1
Tufted Titmouse 2
Great-crested Flycatcher  2
Downy Woodpecker  1
Pileated Woodpecker  2
Red-bellied Woodpecker  2
Turkey Vulture  3 
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  1

Warblers:
Parula  1
Blackburnian  1
Canada  1
Nashville  1
Chestnut-sided  1
Prothonotary  1

I then went to Riley's Lock along the C & O Canal. Birds seen here included:

Great-crested Cormorant  6
Wood Duck  6
Black Vultures 4
A. Crow  10
F. Crow  6
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-Bellied Woodpecker  3
Magnolia Flycatcher 2
Green Heron  1
White- Breasted Nuthatch  1
YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER  1   This was seen about 10 feet off the towpath on the right side immediately after crossing the bridge (headed upstream). It was sitting  ~15 feet high on a small branch and then flycatching several times before heading a short distance into denser vegetation.

My next stop was Hughes Hollow. Birds seen here:

Great Blue Heron  28
Great Egret  56
Wood Duck  16
Solitary Sandpiper  1
Least Sandpiper  6
Lesser Yellowlegs  8
Downy Woodpecker  1
Wood Pewee  2
E. Phoebe  1
OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER  1
Yellow-throated Vireo  2 (singing from 2 different directions when I first pulled into the parking lot)
Red-eyed Vireo  2
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  2
Common Yellowthroat  2
E. Bluebied  1

I did not scan intensely for the White Ibis because I was looking directly into the sun so I cannot say for sure it was not there.
When I first saw the Olive-sided I was facing west about 150 feet beyond the crossdike and bulletin board and saw it in the snags extending above the willow trees. It was 9:40 AM. Initially it was preening, and then flycatching actively. It returned to the same perch about 8 times during the next 10 minutes. I had never heard one sing before but the bird sang 3 different times a very sweet "quick 3 bee"(did not sound like "quick 3 beers"), guess it was too early in the day).

It then dropped out of sight and then could be later seen working the trees at the far western end of the first impondment on the right closer to the parking lot. Jonathan Alderfer and Jon Dunn (from California) arrived and were the ones that relocated it in the area seen second. If you go out looking for it scan all snags and leafless tree limbs carefully. It was very active and moving to different perches every now and then. I left the parking lot at about 10:20 and it was still visible.

My last stop was the polo fields on Hughes Road. For the umpteenth time in the last month or so I saw nothing but:

Killdeer  1
Horned Larks  23.

All in all a very pleasant and rewarding morning of birding. I am lucky if I see one Yellow-bellied Flycatcher or one Olive-sided Flycatcher once a year. I have never seen both in the same morning.

Jim Green
Gaithersburg, MD

Work in moderation, bird in EXCESS!