Golden-winged Warbler?  Ouch, it hurts to have missed that one.  Somehow I missed seeing it as well as the other birders!  I went there this morning to look for the Connecticut Warbler, and though I walked many trails I never crossed paths with anyone except a fisherman.  I am unfamiliar with the park, and not sure where the canoe launch is.  I looked for the area that might have been where Rob posted about, but as it turns out there are so many little and medium-sized ponds at the park, that I have absolutely no clue where he was referring to.  I did find one pond that was bigger than the others.  The area is highly disturbed hydrologically, with many "ponds" (gouged out from gravel ops?) holding water, which creates a lot of "edge" effect.  Although I found no CONWs, much less GWWAs, I had fairly good diversity despite mediocre overall bird numbers.  I think the high habitat diversity and lots of edge makes for good birding here.

First, my morning started out with a bang.  Prior to leaving my house this morning, I heard a Kentucky Warbler only about 50 feet from my truck!  It sang (somewhat quietly) several times over a period of about 4 minutes.  This species is very rare at our house, only my second property record since 1998.  They are surprisingly rare around Jug Bay in general, given that there appears to be suitable habitat.  I was surprised by it singing as much I as was by its presence.  I think the large deer population may be to blame for their decline, and know it's at least partly responsible, since the deer have decimated the understory to a critical extent.  Despite a huge breeding bird diversity here, we had no KEWAs in this block (Bristol SW) for the last breeding bird atlas (2002-2006).  It is bittersweet to observe one now.

After the KEWA I headed up to Gov's Br. Park.  My impression was that it was only mildly birdy there today, since I had to work hard to get birds and only missed a few (birds seen or heard but not id'd).  I'm curious to hear what the other birders found.  Fortunately I lucked into a couple flocks with some good birds for PG County (or elsewhere).  Most unexpected was my first Ruby-crowned Kinglet of the season.  Highlights (passerines) listed below.

7:15 - 8:45 am

Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1
Chimney Swift 4
Belted Kingfisher 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 3
Northern Flicker 1
Pileated Woodpecker 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee 3
Acadian Flycatcher 2
Trail’s Flycatcher 1
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
White-eyed Vireo 4
Yellow-throated Vireo 2
Red-eyed Vireo 11
Blue Jay 4
American Crow 2
Fish Crow 3
Carolina Chickadee 6
Tufted Titmouse 7
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Carolina Wren 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  2
American Robin 3
Gray Catbird 2
Brown Thrasher 1
Tennessee Warbler 1
Northern Parula 2
Blackburnian Warbler 1 HY male
Bay-breasted Warbler 1 ad male
Black-and-white Warbler 3
American Redstart 4
Ovenbird 2
Common Yellowthroat 1
Scarlet Tanager 1

Cheers!
Jeff Shenot
Croom MD