Hi Folks,

I went to try for the White-winged Dove along Hunting Quarter Rd. near 
Hughes Hollow yesterday.  Met up with Jim Green, but we had no luck.  I have 
never known this species to be chase-able in my 13 years of birding in 
Maryland.  My most interesting find at Hughes Hollow was an AM. BITTERN 
which flushed from the channel next to the first impoundment.  I also heard 
a COMMON MOORHEN vocalize at two different times.  I met Dave Roberts there, 
and he had just photographed a BALTIMORE ORIOLE, and that along with ACADIAN 
FLYCATCHER along Sycamore Landing Rd. were yearly firsts for me.  Also, a 
blackbird with rusty sides turned out to be a Bronzed Grackle.  By the way, 
enroute to Montgomery Co., I had a COMMON RAVEN fly across I-70 in Howard 
Co.

This afternoon I visited Oxbow Lake after school.  There were scores of 
swallows, mostly rough-wings, but among them I found one BANK SWALLOW and 
one CLIFF SWALLOW.  Also of interest to me were three RUSTY BLACKBIRDs, a 
PARULA, PRAIRIE WARBLER, and BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER.  The complete list is 
below.

Our yard in Ferndale has had five new arrivals for the season in the past 
two days.  Yesterday Elaine found an imm male BLUE GROSBEAK chowing down 
under one of our fruit trees.  I got to see it this morning during twilight 
in the same place.  Today we had our first CATBIRD and OVENBIRD of the 
season visit our yard, followed by a family of THREE ROSE-BREASTED 
GROSBEAKs, which fed until well into the evening.

Sparrow variety is fairly scant for our yard, with Field Sparrow being about 
the best we've seen here, and that only once.  That changed today when 
Elaine told me about a sparrow she saw that looked kind of like a Song 
Sparrow, but with grayer face, finer streaking, and a buffy breast.  I told 
her she had found our first yard LINCOLN'S SPARROW, which I sincerely wanted 
to see, as I was contemplating a trip down to Annapolis to see the one that 
Dan Haas had found at Waterworks park.  Happily, at about 7:45 p.m. while I 
was planting tomatoes in the diminishing light, Elaine reported to me that 
the bird had returned to the back yard, and I was able to get a satisfactory 
look as the day ended.  Yard bird #138 and #79 for the year.   Nice end to a 
chilly day.

Stan Arnold
Ferndale (AA Co.)



> Location:     Oxbow Lake
> Observation date:     4/29/09
> Number of species:     35
>
> Canada Goose     8
> Wood Duck     4
> Pied-billed Grebe     1
> Great Blue Heron     5
> Green Heron     1
> Bald Eagle     1 imm
> Barred Owl     1
> Chimney Swift     3
> Red-bellied Woodpecker     2
> Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)     1
> Great Crested Flycatcher     2
> Eastern Kingbird     2
> Red-eyed Vireo     2
> Blue Jay     1
> Tree Swallow     20
> Northern Rough-winged Swallow     75
> Bank Swallow     1
> Cliff Swallow     1
> Barn Swallow     15
> Carolina Chickadee     2
> White-breasted Nuthatch     1
> Blue-gray Gnatcatcher     2
> Wood Thrush     1
> American Robin     4
> Gray Catbird     2
> Northern Parula     1
> Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)     15
> Prairie Warbler     1
> Black-and-white Warbler     1
> Common Yellowthroat     1
> Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)     1
> Northern Cardinal     3
> Red-winged Blackbird     25
> Rusty Blackbird     3
> Common Grackle (Purple)     7
>
> This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)
>