Did some birding along the canal today. Highlights:

Sora at Hughes Hollow: discovered by a group of birders near dawn (don't 
know their names). I arrived later in the morning and played a recording 
with no response. Mentioned the previous sighting to Paul Woodward and 
Donald Sweig as I was leaving. Went home to take a nap and then saw 
their Osprey posts indicating the bird had been refound -- apparently 
just after I had left! Gave it another try around 5 PM and was 
successful. Great looks, as Donald mentioned in his previous post 
(thanks Donald!), the bird was in the right-hand impoundment near the 
road that is near the intersection of the path going to the right of the 
main dike just before the bulletin board. A county bird for me in my 
second year of Montgomery County birding.

Rusty Blackbirds: when I went back to look for the Sora, I encountered a 
flock of 37 Rusty's -- an encouraging number for this time of year I 
thought.

Prothonotary Warblers: heard several and saw one female at Riley's Lock  
Good to see them back!

American Pipits: met Andy Martin going west on River Rd.  He had 
reported some American Pipits on eBird last week near Paton's turf farm, 
so he guided me to where he had seen them.  Along the way we spotted 4 
wild turkeys in one of the fields near the farm.  Once we got to the 
farm, the pipits were nowhere in sight.  We were about to leave when a 
flock of 60 birds flew over us, the Pipits were calling and there 
appeared to be some Horned Larks mixed in with them.

All in all a good reminder that more than neotropical passerines are 
migrating at this time of year.  Also had 4 Common Loons at Riley's lock 
in the afternoon.

Good birding!
Jim Moore
Rockville, Maryland
PLEASE REPORT YOUR BIRD SIGHTINGS to http://ebird.org/