Hi Folks,

I led a bird walk for the Anne Arundel Bird Club at Swan Creek yesterday, 
and the unmitigated highlight was an immature YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT HERON 
first spotted by Dave Gillum. This is a very scarce bird in Anne Arundel Co. 
Immature night herons can be fairly tricky at times, and though this bird 
immediately looked good for yellow-crown, I got several photos to study and 
get verification.  Shortly after our group left the bird, Robert Ostrowski 
appeared, and independently got several shots.  We discussed the merits and 
de-merits of this bird for yellow-crown, and sent the photos around last 
night to several experts who supported the ID.  Our big hang up with this 
bird was the yellow on the lower mandible which is more suggestive of 
black-crown, but virtually all other field marks favored the ultimate ID.

Shorebirds are trickling in, and included Lesser Legs, Least, Spotted, and 
first of season Semipalmated Plover.  The COMMON MOORHEN continues to 
vocalize from near the observation platform, but to my knowledge has not 
been seen or photographed by any visiting birders.

The ebird list follows.

Stan Arnold
Ferndale (AA Co.)



 Location:     Swan Creek Dredged Material Facility
Observation date:     8/12/09

 Canada Goose     5
Wood Duck     1
Mallard     12
Hooded Merganser     1
Double-crested Cormorant     11
Great Blue Heron     7
Great Egret     1
Snowy Egret     2
Little Blue Heron     10 (2 adult, 4 calico, 4 white imm)
Cattle Egret     1
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron     1
Osprey     5
Bald Eagle     2
Cooper's Hawk     1
Red-tailed Hawk (Eastern)     1
American Kestrel     3
Common Moorhen     1
Semipalmated Plover     1
Killdeer     7
Spotted Sandpiper     2
Lesser Yellowlegs     1
Least Sandpiper     13
Laughing Gull     4
Ring-billed Gull     1
Herring Gull (American)     6
Great Black-backed Gull     35
Rock Pigeon     7
Mourning Dove     3
Ruby-throated Hummingbird     1
Belted Kingfisher     1
Red-bellied Woodpecker     1
Eastern Kingbird     3
Red-eyed Vireo     1 (Dave only)
American Crow     4
Barn Swallow     4
Carolina Wren     3
Marsh Wren     1
Northern Mockingbird     5
Cedar Waxwing     3
Common Yellowthroat     2
Song Sparrow     1
Northern Cardinal     3
Blue Grosbeak     4
Indigo Bunting     2
Red-winged Blackbird     18
Common Grackle (Purple)     1
American Goldfinch     15

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