Today at the Little Patuxent Oxbow Lake Nature Preserve I spent about 4 hours looking and listening for the possible common moorhen heard by Stan Arnold. I heard something three times I thought might be it, but could not find it. The Wood Ducks have returned in force and the males are beautiful. If you are looking for a place to take pictures of wood ducks, look no further. A first of year Eastern Phoebe flew in today (but we've had them winter here before). Also I spotted 5 Tree Swallows but could hear more (although I couldn't find them. The swallows were catching bugs high in the air, not at lake level.

Location:     Oxbow Lake
Observation date:     3/8/09
Notes:     Went searching for possible common moorhen with no luck. Thought I heard something three times, but could not find it. Of the 42 Ring-necked Ducks, I counted only one female always being escorted by 8 males. First of year Eastern Phoebe (although phoebes have wintered here in the past).
Number of species:     38

Canada Goose     15
Tundra Swan     2
Wood Duck     30
Gadwall     2
American Black Duck     5
Mallard     40
Northern Pintail     2
Green-winged Teal     12
Green-winged Teal (American)     12
Ring-necked Duck     42
Hooded Merganser     20
Great Blue Heron     3
Cooper's Hawk     1
Red-shouldered Hawk     2
Greater Yellowlegs     2
Wilson's Snipe     1
Ring-billed Gull     30
Mourning Dove     1
Belted Kingfisher     1
Red-bellied Woodpecker     1
Downy Woodpecker     2
Hairy Woodpecker     2
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)     2
Pileated Woodpecker     1
Eastern Phoebe     1
Blue Jay     2
American Crow     5
Fish Crow     2
Tree Swallow     5
Carolina Chickadee     2
Tufted Titmouse     3
Carolina Wren     1
Winter Wren     1
American Robin     2
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)     5
Eastern Towhee     2
Northern Cardinal     7
Red-winged Blackbird     25

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Marcy Stutzman
Russett, MD