After a nice morning at Rock Creek Park, I tried the evening at the polo
field on Hughes Road and Hughes Hollow for sunset. The birds were not
unusual, but it was a great evening.
At the polo grounds there were a dozen or so HORNED LARKS and a flyby
COOPER'S HAWK. At the Say's phoebe spot, there was a large flock of
HOUSE FINCHES.
At Hughes Hollow, there were the expected GREAT BLUE HERONS and GREAT
EGRETS, one GREEN HERON, and at least one RED-HEADED WOODPECKER in the
distant dead trees. Several BLUEBIRDS.
What were particularly nice were the simultaneous views of BLUEBIRD AND
NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH (yellow adult, pumping tail) and BROWN THRASHER AND
BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER (adult male). Also had FOS WHITE-THROATED
SPARROW.
Sunset was nice, but the full moon was quite amazing at HH. By 7:30 the
first "star" was up, even though the sky was still somewhat blue. The
star was in the SE, so it had to be Jupiter. With the 60x scope the
four moons and two dark cloud bands were clearly visible and quite a
treat.
The great blue herons had previously perched in bare trees, but when the
moon came up they were out there hunting by moonlight until I left. As
I got in my car, I heard a GREAT HORNED OWL. And as a I returned on
River Road, a fox crossed.
Gary Ender
Bethesda, MD |