Hi everyone,

I spent the day birding areas along the Patuxent and Potomac rivers in Prince George's County.

I started at Mt. Calvert where it was fairly quiet, but not desolate by any means. A Chipping Sparrow, singing from atop a tree in the parking lot, greeted me as I got out of the car. On the river, I couldn't find any Black Ducks or Common Mergansers, even on the Anne Arundel side, but there were 8 Green-winged Teals standing next to a beaver's lodge. The beaver himself was swimming just in front of the lodge, very much unconcerned with the Teals and 11 Wilson's Snipe right next to his home. In the fields, a Gray Ghost and about a dozen Flickers were hunting, each the way nature dictated. 

Less than a mile away by river, but over four miles by road, I was next birding at Patuxent River Park. My first sight was an adult Bald Eagle chasing an Osprey in an attempt to steal its catch. It took 3 or 4 plunges but the Osprey was nimbly able to retain his meal. The Eagle gave up and landed on a tree in Anne Arundel County. There were dozens and dozens of swallows skimming the river for insects. It didn't take long before I found 1 Northern Rough-winged in the mass. I'm not quite sure how to describe it, but to me its flight seemed less frantic and more graceful than the nearby Tree Swallows. I think there were a few more of them but they were hard to track down. I estimated 150 Tree Swallows but there were probably more. When the water gets low enough, a few wire contraptions are exposed which the swallows like to perch on. At the time, the water level was quite high but there were still some wooden posts peeking above the surface. On one of them was a Tree Swallow and on another, just to the right, was a BARN SWALLOW. This my first of the year and earliest date by quite awhile, although not anywhere near the Feb 24th early migration date. Just a few moments later two FORESTER'S TERNS flew north up the river, stopped above a blind and fished for a good 20 minutes before continuing on. It won't be long before this same location is swarmed with dozens of Forester's Terns.

Along the boardwalk, as I was walking back to the car, I stopped to look at a Swamp Sparrow perched at the top of a stalk.  As I was doing so, a MARSH WREN sang not further than 10 feet away. This took me off guard for a second but I settled myself in time to hear it sing 3 or 4 more times. You can hear 20+ of these guys singing if you kayak on the river in the Summer, but I don't think I've ever heard one sing from the boardwalk, and never this early. I gave one last quick scan of the river from the area in front of the Visitor's Center. A  Mockingbird seemingly (could just be my interpretation)  was imitating the call of an Osprey and the rattle of a Kingfisher, which you might guess, are two of the most common sounds around the river right now. 

At Selby's Landing, the Snipe were back in big numbers. I counted 74, which is 7 shy of my personal high 81. Sleeping in the mud in the middle of this brown swarm (the tide wasn't very low so there wasn't much mud space for the Snipe to spread around on), was a tired looking Greater Yellowlegs. On the drive out of the park, fittingly in the section surrounded by pines, 2+ Pine Warblers sang their loose trills. 

Next I stopped at the Clyde Watson Fishing Area which was pretty slow. I braved the tirade of the male Swan Goose that never leaves the dock to find a few DC Cormorants and a single CASPIAN TERN making its way up the river. To bring my Patuxent portion of the day to an end, I stopped by Eagle Harbor where there 138 Ruddy Ducks and 1 CASPIAN TERN. Strangely, the most exciting sighting was a single male Northern Shoveler just beyond the midpoint of the river, in Calvert County waters. 

I went through the drive thru at Burger King to get a quick, cheap, and bad lunch and continued driving to the Western side of the county where I could get views of the Potomac, still hoping for Long-taileds and Red-throateds. At the National Colonial Farm, 20 Gadwall lingered in the apparent void of the 600+ Coot raft which had been there for the last few weeks.  I didn't find any grebe species but there were still four Buffleheads. I had to skip on Piscataway Park because it was already dangerously close to rush hour but I did stop at Wharf Rd. for a little bit to scan the creek.  Three Ring-necked Ducks, along with two Common Loons in breeding plumage, five Common Mergansers, 7 Lesser Scaup, ~300 Coots, 244 Ruddy Ducks, and 12 Bonaparte's Gulls were present. I had Black-headed Gulls and Little Gulls on my mind but none in reality. 

I would post a full list but this is already too long.

Robert Ostrowski
Bowie, MD