Hi, everyone -
I spent the morning wandering around Howard County. Here are the highlights (and lowlights):
Brighton Dam - nothing exciting - bummer
Springdale Quarry - the first year male Common Goldeneye is still there
Schooley Mill Park - a Cackling Goose circled the park a couple times this morning with a small flock of Canadas - new species for the park! It was very quiet and dreary there, but I also pulled out a Fox Sparrow and a Brown Thrasher. The last time I was at Schooley was 3 weeks ago. Since then they have mowed all the weedy fields, which is always a shock to my system the first time I see it. In addition, the dam on the lower beaver pond has been breached again so there is essentially no standing water there. The upper (main) pond is about 1.5 feet below normal, which seems weird; I couldn't see any obvious failures, but there has been a lot of recent beaver activity above the upper pond.
Daisy Road - 7 American Wigeon and a male Northern Pintail in the bottomlands where the stream crosses the road.
Later,
Nancy Magnusson
Ellicott City, MD
HoCo site locations: http://www.howardbirds.org/birdinghowardcounty/site_guide_map.htm |