After work, I met up with Stan Arnold to survey this Northern Anne
Arundel hotspot.  It was fun from the start.

Highlights:
4 Gadwall in the wetlands
1 White-Rumped Sandpiper in flight with two Killdeer.
4 Greater Yellowlegs
4 Carolina Wren
3 Winter Wren
2 House Wren
(I was hoping to then add 1 Marsh or 1 Sedge Wren once in the wetland
area, to keep up the wren streak.  No luck with that.)
2 White-crowned Sparrows
An Osprey nearly landing on a Bald Eagle, in an apparent battle over a fish.
Loads of Swamps, White-throats and Song Sparrows.
A few Myrtle Warblers and two Common Yellowthroats.

Stan picked out 5 Black-bellied Plovers, with 2 or 3 Dunlin.  When
they landed, one could only locate and ID two Dunlin and three BB
Plover, illustrating how tricky these shorebirds can be to find when
they're hunkered down in the mud.

Best bird action sequence of the day:
A Peregrine Falcon (of course) perched on the mud flats.  It spent a
good deal of time just surveying the impoundments.  It spotted
something in the South cell and just ripped into the skies.  I had it
in my scope, thinking it was going after an early dinner.  It made
contact with what looked like another Peregrine at the time. That
bird, which must've been feasting on something on the mud flats,
turned out to be a Coopers Hawk.  After getting smacked by the
Peregrine, the accipiter immediately decided that it'd be best to make
for the tree line... in a hurry.  The Peregrine then finished eating
the Coop's meal.

What is just amazing to me is how the falcon visually locked on to a
brown hawk, sitting on brown dirt, at such a range.  I told Stan I'd
like to have a scope that powerful.

I left and Stan went to work the wetland area.  Stan, please fill us
in on what else was seen today at Swan Creek?  Did you manage to coax
Matt's American Bittern out of the marsh?

Good Birding,

Dan Haas
West Annapolis, MD