Parked on Falls Road near the 695 Beltway overpass and walked thru the
woods down to the lover spillway and footbridge (now securely blocked
from entry on the other side. I walked around the picnic area a bit before
returning, about a 5 mi. walk, perhaps closer to 6 after figuring in my
side diversions.

As I assumed, bird activity was very light. The long walk was not too bad
as it was mostly overcast. A pretty good downpour of about 5 min. got
me going on the return leg. While at the spillway area, I spotted a Black-
crowned Night Heron actively fishing there. Also, I spotted a number of
the Blue-fronted Dancer damselfly, and had a 1st time sighting of the
Black-shouldered Spinyleg clubtail dragonfly. I watched it capture and
eat a small blue butterfly, perhaps a comrade of the E. Tailed Blue I
spotted a bit later. There was a butterfly similar to the European Skipper
with its broad, light-colored wing edging, but its pattern on the wings
seemed too "busy" for it? Aside from the Cabbage White and Red-spot-
ted Purple, didn't see any more Lepidoptera.

Near the lower edge of the upper lake, I spotted another Black-crowned
Night Heron, fishing at the water's edge. As earlier indicated, the birds
were pretty sparse, so I was surprised to see on the recap I tallied 26 spp.
A few notables: Phoebe, Chipping Sparrow, singing MD Yellowthroat,
Red-shouldered Hawk, the Acadian Flycatcher and Pileated W'pecker.
At the far corner of the dike area, I heard several times what sounded
exactly like a: White-throated Sparrow! Took a few moments to sink in.
I've heard of the occasional laggard, but I think this takes the cake.

Oh, yeah, can't let everyone go before noting I spotted several nice
groups of fruiting bodies of the inimitable slime molds (formerly
grouped w/the fungi, but more recently elevated to their own, separate
Kingdom): the Coral Slime (Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa), the Red Rasp-
berry Slime (Tubifera ferruginosa) and the Many-headed Slime
(Physarum polycephalum). Years ago, I took a 1 sec. hand-held pic-
ture that won Best of Show in a mushroom photo contest, of the latter.
Sic gloria transit.

Paul Noell
Balto.  MD