During my morning walk around Schoolhouse Pond today, I quickly came across the Yellow-throated Warbler again.  I was walking around the pond counterclockwise, and first heard the bird singing along the trail near the creek/utility cut, just like yesterday.  I found a Yellow-throated Warbler foraging above, watching it periodically as I looked for other birds.  I began to suspect that the bird I was watching was not the bird singing, but did not think too much about it.  As I slowly made my way around the pond, I continued to hear the bird singing, either above, along side me, or slightly ahead of me.  However, when I was finally coming out of the woods on the boardwalk (and after hearing the YTWA singing for probably over ten minutes), I saw a flurry of activity low in one of the willows near the boardwalk (approximately 30 feet from my position).   It was two beautiful Yellow-throated Warblers - the male mounting and than copulating with the female!  The birds quickly departed and the male resumed singing.  Of course, Yellow-throated Warblers breed fairly reliably nearby, but during the atlas I did not remember ever confirming the species at Schoolhouse Pond or in the block for that matter.  I checked this with the atlas on-line data base and I had (despite a lot of checking) never found evidence of breeding activity of YTWA during the atlas period, and evidence had not been found during the prior atlas period either.  

Other birds this morning included 1 Yellow Warbler, several Northern Parula and Common Yellowthroats, and one Caspian Tern.  Flyover gulls included 265 Laughing Gulls, 7 Ring-billed Gulls, and 8 Herring Gulls.

Fred Shaffer

Crofton, Anne Arundel

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