Helen Patton and I headed west today and here are our highlights:

Our first stop was the eastern end of the lake at Rocky Gap State Park. There was nothing but mallards on the lake and not one swallow was seen whatsoever. Near the beginning of the trail that leads clockwise around the lake we had:

House Wren  1
Blue-winged Warbler  1
Magnolia Warbler  1   (JG only)

We hit a nice pocket of activity at the end of the road ito the parking area in the trees on the western side once they were sunlit.
 
Brown Thrasher  1
Yellow- throated Vireo  1 (singing)
Baltimore Oriole  1 (HP only)
Magnolia Warbler  2
Chestnut-sided Warbler  1
Black-throated Green Warbler  1
Nashville Warbler  1
Blackburnian Warbler  2
Black & White Warbler  1
Lincoln Sparrow  1

Our next stop was at North Branch at the waste water treatment area:

Killdeer: estimated 60-75
Least Sandpiper  10
Lesser Yellowlegs  6-8
Ruddy Turnstone  1
Spotted Sandpiper  1
Red-necked Phalorope  1 (seen looking through the gate entrance towards the back where there is more water and a sand bar; quite a distance away)

While scoping the shorebirds we heard a calling Amer. Kestrel fly in and perch on top of a telephone pole with a small bird in its talons. It (the dead bird) showed no real field marks and by the length and color of the tail I thought possibly chickadee. It flew off and continued calling before I could get the scope on it. 

We headed SE on Rt. 51 and then took Dailey Road up into Green Ridge State Forest. On Dailey Road we saw:

Broad-winged Hawk  1 imm.
Sharp-shinned hawk  2
Blue-headed Vireo  2 singing their usual song and also some other vocalizing I had never heard before)
Scarlet Tanager  3 (all females)
Yellow-billed Cuckoo  2

On Green Ridge Road:

Pine Warbler   4
Magnolia Warbler  1
Hooded Warbler  1

We spent the rest of the day in Washington County with our primary focus on looking for shorebirds.
We should be sent down to the minor leagues! We went to 8 different places. All we were rewarded with were Killdeer with 2 exceptions. At the western edge of Big Pool there was a solitary Solitary Sandpiper (JG only) and at the marshy area adjacent to Beaver Creek Golf Course we had 4 Solitary Sandpipers and one Least Sandpiper. We looked for Uppies at the Hagerstown Airport but came up empty.

(Should have gone to Finzel after North Branch).

Jim Green
Gaithersburg, MD

Work in moderation, bird in EXCESS!