I spent a couple of hours walking along the Middle Patuxent River in
Columbia this morning, with a surprising sighting of an American Bittern
topping the list. Other birds of note were 4 La. waterthrush and 3 palm
warblers.

The bittern is quite surprising. While there are plenty of wet and marshy
areas along the river, it is mostly just river bottom with extensive tree
cover. The bittern was not even in the one small area with cattails. I would
not expect it to hang around, but if someone wants to try for it, the south
side (Kindler Road) would be better. The Gorman NRA is described on the
Howard County Bird Club web site:
http://www.howardbirds.org/birdinghowardcounty/Gorman/Gorman_NRA_overview.htm

--John McKitterick
jbmck at comcast.net
Columbia, MD

Location:     Gorman - Kindler
Observation date:     4/10/09
Number of species:     32

Canada Goose     1
Wood Duck     2
Mallard     4
American Bittern     1
Turkey Vulture     3
Red-shouldered Hawk     1
Red-bellied Woodpecker     4
Downy Woodpecker     5
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)     2
Pileated Woodpecker     5
Eastern Phoebe     4
Blue Jay     X
American Crow     X
Fish Crow     1
Carolina Chickadee     X
Tufted Titmouse     X
Red-breasted Nuthatch     X
Carolina Wren     X
Ruby-crowned Kinglet     5
Eastern Bluebird     1
Hermit Thrush     4
American Robin     X
Northern Mockingbird     1
Palm Warbler (Yellow)     3
Louisiana Waterthrush     4
Eastern Towhee     2
Swamp Sparrow     1
White-throated Sparrow     5
Northern Cardinal     X
Brown-headed Cowbird     2
House Finch     2
American Goldfinch     4

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