Hi Folks,

After school today I visited Patuxent Ponds Park in western Anne
Arundel Co., south of Odenton and there found nine species of warbler
highlighted by a GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER and also finding a WORM-EATING
WARBLER.  Details:

With the cooler weather today I really wanted to get out and look for
warblers in AA County without doing a lot of hiking.  The little
Patuxent Ponds Park has been a good warbler location, so I checked it
out.  It was very quiet when I arrived at 3:30 p.m., but whenever I'd
find a few chickadees I would stop and play some screech owl noise,
always getting some warblers in response.  I hiked the rectangular
4-wheeler loop behind the ponds, and after connecting with the loop
turned left, heading south making a clockwise loop.  About 75 yards
before turning west I heard some chickadees, got the noise going, and
had a particularly good group of warblers.  I was shocked when I put
my binoculars on a male Golden-winged Warbler perched in full sun.
The black eye patches and black chin were crisp and well-defined; the
patch on the head was solid yellow, as were the two wing patches.  The
bird gave me full frontal and side views in perfect sunlight.  This
bird was stunning.  I wouldn't get so dramatic about the sighting
except for the fact that in 15 years of Maryland birding, only once
have I seen a golden-wing away from the three western counties, and
that was last year when I had one at Elk Neck State Park in Cecil Co.
This is a bird that I truly never expected to see in Anne Arundel Co.

Thrilled with the find, I continued the walk around the loop and about
180 degrees later (just before turning from north to east) I had
another nice flock with the Worm-eating Warbler, almost exactly where
I found one this spring, following a post made by Rob Ostrowski.  A
pair of Barred Owls kept me engaged in pleasant conversation during a
good part of the walk.  The complete list is below.

Yesterday's survey of the Swan Creek Wetland (AA Co. near Key Bridge)
had NO shorebirds (as Warren Strobel had earlier discovered), but the
TRICOLORED HERON was back in the mitigated wetland, now in its third
week at this venue.

Stan Arnold
Ferndale (AA Co.)
 [or]




Location:     Patuxent Ponds Park--Gambrills
Observation date:     8/27/10
Notes:     The GW Warbler was an unexpected county bird, found on the
back loop trail as I was heading south towards the river.  A stunning
male in perfect sunlight, gave me phenomenal looks.
Number of species:     24

Barred Owl     2
Red-bellied Woodpecker     1
Downy Woodpecker     5
Pileated Woodpecker     1
Eastern Wood-Pewee     1
White-eyed Vireo     3
Yellow-throated Vireo     1
Red-eyed Vireo     9
Blue Jay     1
Carolina Chickadee     15
Tufted Titmouse     8
White-breasted Nuthatch     1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher     9
Eastern Bluebird     1
Golden-winged Warbler     1
Northern Parula     2
Chestnut-sided Warbler     1
Magnolia Warbler     3
Pine Warbler     1
Black-and-white Warbler     1
American Redstart     7
Worm-eating Warbler     1
Ovenbird     1
Northern Cardinal     3

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)