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Subject:

Mont. Co., Blue Mash Nature Trail, 8/13 -- American Black Duck and shorebirds

From:

Jim and Ann Nelson

Reply-To:

Jim and Ann Nelson

Date:

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:41:36 -0400

Mike and Joy Bowen invited me along for a nice early walk at Blue Mash.  Since I kept the eBird list, I'm reporting for the three of us.

It was fairly quiet this morning.  There seemed to be lots of shorebirds at the small pond located inside the landfill fence at the southwest end of the trail.  Unfortunately, the willows around this pond have had a great growing year, obscuring the view of the pond until they lose their leaves.  However, we did catch glimpses of a number of shorebird species through gaps and flushed five American Black Duck.  We're sure there were many more shorebirds than we could see because there was lots of exposed mudflats at this pond.  (We decided that it would be nice to have a raised observation platform to allow viewing of this pond over the willows.)  The remainder of the trail was fairly quiet, and the large pond contained only a solitary Solitary Sandpiper and some herons and egrets.  The complete list appears below.

Jim Nelson
Bethesda, MD

Location:     Blue Mash Nature Trail
Observation date:     8/13/09
Number of species:     34

Canada Goose     5
American Black Duck     5
Great Blue Heron     2
Great Egret     2
Green Heron     3
Black Vulture     22
Turkey Vulture     3
hawk sp.     1
Killdeer     8
Least Sandpiper 2
Semipalmated Sandpiper 1
Solitary Sandpiper     2
Lesser Yellowlegs     2
Mourning Dove     5
Red-bellied Woodpecker     1
Eastern Phoebe     3
Eastern Kingbird     2
Blue Jay     2
Fish Crow     1
crow sp.     19
Northern Rough-winged Swallow     1
Barn Swallow     4
Tufted Titmouse     2
Carolina Wren     1
House Wren     3
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher     2
Eastern Bluebird     2
Gray Catbird     11
Northern Mockingbird     6
Cedar Waxwing     8
Eastern Towhee     2
Field Sparrow     5
Song Sparrow     2
Northern Cardinal     10
Indigo Bunting     2
American Goldfinch     10