I stopped in at SWAP before work this morning hoping to see some Vesper Sparrows.  I was able to find 2, but the real highlight was the Common Loon flight that occurred while I was there.  I carefully counted loose flocks of Common Loons as they were flying over and ended up with 273 birds!  Keith Costley was coming in as I was leaving and hopefully he can add more during the time he was there.  

Other interesting birds were 11 Northern Shovelers, Ring-necked Pheasant (glad to know they are still somewhere), and my first of the year Eastern Kingbird.  At the light rail station, a mockingbird was imitating Eastern Kingbird so it took a little bit of the surprise out when a kingbird dropped into a tree by the boat ramp.  

Full ebird list below.

Good birding,

Matt Hafner
Forest Hill, MD

Location:     Southwest Area Park
Observation date:     4/14/11
Number of species:     36
Canada Goose     8
Mallard     3
Northern Shoveler     11
Ring-necked Pheasant     1     crowed once, SWAP is one of the last strongholds for this species in Central Maryland.
Common Loon     273     ***High Count*** All flyovers carefully counted heading north starting around 6:40am and continuing through when I left.  I even saw 2 more, not included in this count, as I was driving to work.  Mostly in loose flocks of 10-40 birds.
Double-crested Cormorant     8
Osprey     2
Bald Eagle     1
Ring-billed Gull     14
Caspian Tern     2
Rock Pigeon     4
Mourning Dove     3
Chimney Swift     1     flew through my binoculars while counting a loon flock
Belted Kingfisher     1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)     7
Eastern Kingbird     1
Fish Crow     6
Tree Swallow     5
Carolina Chickadee     2
Carolina Wren     1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet     1
American Robin     16
Northern Mockingbird     2
Brown Thrasher     1
European Starling     25
Common Yellowthroat     2
Field Sparrow     4
Vesper Sparrow     2     ***UNCOMMON*** though regular here in migration.  County bird for me.
Savannah Sparrow (Eastern)     5
Song Sparrow     12
Swamp Sparrow     9     Several singing
White-throated Sparrow     6
Northern Cardinal     4
Red-winged Blackbird     36
Brown-headed Cowbird     1
House Finch     2
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)




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