Hi Everybody:
Since I had to work yesterday and today I missed on the invitation to go "railing" in Somerset County. On Sunday I did not need to be at work until early afternoon. Sunday morning I greeted the sunrise at the Union Mills wetlands area in Carroll County. Before I could even get out of the car I heard a SORA calling. It would call 10 - 15 times during the half hour that I was there. !5 minutes after first hearing the SORA a VIRGINIA RAIL joined the morning chorus. These were my 2 target birds. There may have been 2 VA. RAILS; the callling seemed to be moving around alot but I never heard it (them) call at the same time. I never did see the VA. RAIL (but if it had any yellow on it could I have counted it as a Yellow Rail?). No, I didn't think so. Thank you to Bob Ringler for posting this earlier in the week.
I then moved indirectly to the intersection of Wakefield Valley and Wilt Roads. A week or so ago another Birder reported VESPER SPARROW here. My apologies for not remembering your name but I thank you very much for your post. In the next 45 minutes I saw and heard 5 species of sparrows as I walked the road edges: VESPER, SONG, FIELD, SAVANNAH & GRASSHOPPER.
Another highlight was finding a dirt field on a hillside at one end of Wilt Road that had at least 24 American Pipits walking the field. I had not seen them yet this year and was beginning to think that I would have to wait until the end of '09. It was especially nice to see the buffier tones on their breasts as they were reaching fuller breedng plumage.
I spent the next hour or so driving along some country roads that I had never explored before and then headed back home to get ready for work. I did not make a note of all of the YELLOW WARBLERS that I saw but they seemed to be evident and singing at every expected suitable habitat that I stopped at. My estimate for the morning would be seeing &/or hearing at least 15.
Below is an abridged list of my morning finds (all in Carroll County):
UNION MILLS WETLANDS:
Wood Duck 1
Va. Rail 1-2 (a county bird)
Sora 1 (FOY & county bird)
Yellow Warbler 3
HALTER ROAD BRIDGE CROSSING OVER BIG PIPE CREEK
Rough-winged Swallow 3
E. Kingbird 2 (FOY)
C. Yellowthroat 1
Yellow Warbler
STUDY ROAD
E. Phoebe 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
Swamp Sparrow !
INTERSECTION OF WAKEFIELD VALLEY & WILT ROADS
Greater Yellowlegs 1 (a calling flyover - and a county bird)
N. Mockingbird 1 (doing a perfect field sparrow imitation)
Field sparrow 2
Vesper Sparrow 4 (FOY - and a county bird)
Savannah Sparrow 1 (county bird)
Grasshopper Sparrow 2
E. Meadowlark 1
STRAWBRIDGE LANE
White-eyed Vireo 1
WILT ROAD
N. Flicker 2 (anting in a field)
Brown Thrasher 1
Wood Thrush 1
Great-crested Flycatcher 1 (FOY)
American Pipits 24 (possibly more)
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
Chipping Sparrow 2 ( my 7th species of sparrow for the morning)
WAKEFIELD VALLEY ROAD CROSSING AT DICKERSON RUN
Warbling Vireo 2 (FOY)
E. Kingbird 1
Orchard Oriole 4 (3 Males and 1 Female chattering and chasing one another around like there is no tomorrow)
And since I worked the weekend I get to go birding Tuesday & Wednesday on my days off!
Jim Green
Gaithersburg, MD
WORK IN MODERATION, BIRD IN EXCESS!!!
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