Sunday morning there was a blue-winged warbler in the forest along Northway Road as it nears the playing fields near the BW parkway in Greenbelt. Besides being a FOY for me, it was also a FIG (first in Greenbelt (ever)) for me. A broad winged hawk circled above the road giving excellent views. Otherwise, many of the usual suspects; the only other warbler being yellow-rumpeds.
Also, the bobolinks have returned to my research plots in Beltsville (NE corner of Beaverdam and Edmonston Roads). While this area is not readily open to the public, the roads on 3 sides of this field are open to the public and the bobolinks can sometimes be seen from a moving vehicle. As an interesting side note, my records show my first sighting of the bobolinks to be between 4-26 and 5-2 every year since 2002, when I began keeping records. Not very scientific since I don't go to the plots every day, so that makes this narrow window a liberal estimate of return dates (i.e. it may, in fact, be even narrower). The other thing I find interesting about these guys is that they are almost always found only in the plots with alfalfa in them, which represent 4 acres within a 40 acre field and each patch of alfalfa is 1 acre in size at the largest. How do they do that? And, are these the same individuals, or descendants of the same original individuals each year?
Michel Cavigelli
Greenbelt (PG Co)
-----Original Message-----
From: Maryland Birds & Birding on behalf of Dan haas
Sent: Mon 4/27/2009 8:38 AM
To:
Subject: [MDOSPREY] Why I love West Annapolis
So, it's not Stan Arnold's house... but it's still a great
neighborhood. The dog and I had a really nice mix of birds this
morning. Hmmm, now where is that Cerulean Warbler?
Location: West Annapolis
Observation date: 4/27/09
Canada Goose 2
Mallard 5
Double-crested Cormorant 3
Green Heron 1
Black-crowned Night-Heron 1 (flying up the Severn River)
Osprey 4
Peregrine Falcon 1 (Perched on the bridge, right under the fire
engine. Must've been a big accident.)
Laughing Gull 2
Herring Gull 1
Royal Tern 2 (Flying and calling up and down the river.)
Mourning Dove 4
Chimney Swift 7
Red-bellied Woodpecker 3
Downy Woodpecker 1
White-eyed Vireo 1 (A nice surprise to hear one in the brush
surrounding the old B&A Railroad bed.)
Blue Jay 17
American Crow 2
Fish Crow 9
Barn Swallow 2
Carolina Chickadee 4
Tufted Titmouse 2
House Wren 4
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 2
American Robin 11
Northern Mockingbird 2
European Starling 2
Northern Parula 5
YELLOW WARBLER 1 (FOY)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 2
Black-and-white Warbler 2
Song Sparrow 1
White-throated Sparrow 4
Northern Cardinal 12
Red-winged Blackbird 7
Common Grackle 12
House Finch 2
American Goldfinch 5
House Sparrow 1
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)
Good Birding,
Dan Haas
West Annapolis, MD
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