Hi Everybody:

I spent a full day birding in the above counties on Wed. I started before
daylight and heard an E. Screech Owl in the Fort Smallwood area of AA County
and then had several over in western Baltimore County. Here are the
highlights of my day.

Liberty Dam Road (off of Wards Chapel Road)  There was a dense heavy fog so
I was not able to scan the reservoir.
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  1
Golden-crowned Kinglet     12
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker     1
Red-breasted Nuthatch      1

I then drove over to Carroll County and birded around the boat ramp area off
of Oakland Mills Road. I heard and then saw a singing Winter Wren.

Back in Baltimore County I was on Deer Park Road and deciDed to check out
Northwest Regional Park, a park that I had always driven by previously.  It
had some edges and also a dried up pond with lots of vegetation in it. It
was fairly birdy with alot of common sparrows (including 11 Field and 23
Chipping).

My next stop was soldiers Delight where I walked the Choate Mine Loop Trail.
The majority of the birds were within 100 feet of Deer Park Road which
included at least 7 Red-breasted Nuthatches. The lower part of the trail was
dominated by over 70 American Crows that were mobbing first a red-tailed
hawk and then a pair od Red-shouldered Hawks.
I spent most of the rest of the day from 1:30 on in Anne Arundel County.

At Oxbow Preserve during a light drizzle I saw:

42 Wood Ducks
6  A. Coots

My most interesting bird was a possible imm. Common Moorhen. I was scanning
the marsh in front of the higher vegetation when I saw a coot-like bird
moving and feeding slowly just inside the edge of the taller marsh grasses.
Over the next 15 minutes or so I never had a full view of the entire bird at
once. It was swimming the entire time so I never saw the legs or leg length.
I would get occasional glimpses of the head, the rear, some side shots, etc.
but never a full view. The bird was constantly moving back and forth and
then finally disappeared for good back into the vegetation.
The first thing that I noticed was that the bill was an overall dark color.
When I got back to the car and looked in Sibley I did not notice a lighter
color on the tip of the bill like he shows in his drawings. It could have
been there and was not seen due to the lighting, dirt from the bird feeding.
The bottom line is that to me the entire bill appeared to be dark from the
base to the tip. The white rump patch seemed to be more significant than
that shown by the surrounding coots which were swimming around in more open
water. I saw no interaction between the bird in question and the coots, some
of which were always in close proximity.
The field mark that I noticed when given a partial side view was the hint of
a white edge on the flanks which separated the brownish gray of the back of
the bird with the grayer underside. It appeared to me to be the beginning of
the prominent white flank stripe which is characteristic of the C. Moorhen.
 Based on these observations I am leaning towards an imm. C. Moorhen. I will
say that I have never seen an immature Coot before that I can remember. I
would be interested to hear the comments of others. I did notice that the
posts today did not indicate that the bird in question was seen.

My next stop was at Governors Bridge in Prince Georges County. Most of the
birds seen were to be expected:

Ruby-crowned Kinglet     5 (all were in the same bushes)
Golden-crowned Kinglet    6
Red-breasted Nuthatch   1

Davidsonville Park (AA County)

Field Sparrow     5
Chipping Sparrow    25
White-crowned Sparrow    1 (imm.)
Swamp Sparrow    1

Sands Park

Palm Warbler    2    (yellow)
Savannah Sparrow    8
Field Sparrow    11
Swamp Sparrow   6
VESPER SPARROW    1
E. Meadowlark    1

WOOTONS LANDING
My last stop of the day I finally saw the sun which was out for about an
hour before it set. I first walked the upper trail which parallels Sand
Road. This was only the third time I was at Wootons Landing and had never
walked the upper trail before. I finished by walking the main trail.

Wood Duck    19
Black Duck    1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet    15   (12 of these were in one small area)
Golden-crowned Kinglet    1
Yellow-rumped Warbler     35
Black-throated Blue Warbler    1 male  (flitting around with alot of the RC
Kinglets)
Rusty Blackbird     7

I had a wonderful day and as I was walking back to the car the sun had just
set behind me and an almost full moon was rising ahead of me.

Jim Green
Gaithersburg, MD

work in moderation, BIRD IN EXCESS!!!





>
>>
>>