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Subject:

Potomac River in Montgomery County

From:

Jim Green

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Date:

Sat, 6 Sep 2008 23:52:17 +0000

Hi all:

 I just returned from a late afternoon outing. Scanning both sides of the Black Hill Regional Park from the Rt. 121 Causeway produced nothing. I then went to Riley's Lock. The road was closed so I walked in. Half way down the road I ran into Ed Patten. He had scanned from Riley's Lock and then walked south to the grassy area off of the towpath just north of Violette's Lock. He saw 1 Common Tern, 3 Black Terns, 1 Sooty Tern and one unidentified tern. I hastened my pace and once at Riley's I picked up the Black Terns and then had 1 Common Tern fly north and continue upriver. The Black Terns did the same and then headed back downriver to Violette's Lock. I saw one unidentified tern (definitely not Ed's Sooty) that appeared much larger and much higher in the sky than the other terns. Too far away to I.D.

I then walked back to the car and drove down to Viollette's lock (the road was closed at the point where you would turn left into the parking lot). I parked and then walked up river with my scope and had much better and closer views. Right above the rapids I picked up 2 Common Terns, lazily flying around and then heading upstream and out of sight. All of a sudden 3 Black Terns came in from the right and gathered above the rapids staying fairly close to the surface of the water. Two different times they headed upriver out of sight only to reappear from the north and regroup above the rapids. I also saw 2 Forster's Terns that flew upriver moving very slowly but they never circled back for a second look while I was there. There were many swallows over the river actively feeding after the rain subsided. (90% were Barn with a small number of Tree and Rough-winged). I never did find any candidate that could have been Ed's Sooty Tern (great find Ed!).

Once again the Polo Fields off of Hughes Road produced nothing for me but Killdeer & Horned Larks. The most surprising thing at Hughes Hollow (a very quick stop) was that the large impoundment on the left has filled up with water. You would have never thought that it was beginning to dry up. Most of the Great Egrets and Great Blues were in the impoundment in front of the parking lot.

Jim GreenGaithersburg, MD

work in moderation, bird in EXCESS!