Hi Everybody:

I headed west yesterday in the rain and did a shorebird search in Washington County. I found some in half a dozen locations. Most of them were dominated by Solitary Sandpipers. Water levels were high in many places. Because of this I did find a few new flooded farm field "ponds".

The flooded field off of Rt. 66 (north of Horseshoe Lane): 5 Solitary, 1 Spotted and 1 Least Sandpipers.

The pond at the Mt. Aetna Nature Center was extremely high: There was one Spotted Sandpiper doing an effective balancing act on a small log in the water despite its constant teetering actions.

I found 1 Spotted Sandpiper and 1 Killdeer at the Boonesboro Waste Water Treatment Plant. Other birds seen here included N. Rough-winged (18) and Barn (6) Swallows along with 1 Savannah Sparrow.

On Monroe Road I heard a small flock of BOBOLINKS but never saw them come out of the field.

In Hagerstown there was 1 Killdeer, 1 Solitary Sandpiper and 2 Spotted Sandpipers at the end of Hagers Crossing Road.
The  small wetland area off of Bartow Drive had 4 Greater Yellowlegs in it.

I scanned the fields surrounding the Hagerstown Airport but had nothing of significance. The wetland behind the airport is now a good sized lake (more water than I have ever seen here) and looks more appropriate for wading birds. The only shorebirds here were 2 Killdeer and 1 Solitary Sandpiper. I also had Savannah and Grasshopper Sparrows (one each) in the general vicinity.

The best gathering was at a newly formed wet area about 1/10 of a mile down Daley Road (just north of its intersection with Broadfording Road: 3 Solitary Sandpipers, 4 Lesser Yellowlegs, 1 Greater Yellowlegs and 1 Killdeer.

There were no shorebirds around the high waters of Blairs Valley Lake.

I then switched over to looking for migrants . There was very little singing, temperatures had turned colder after the rain stopped and the wind picked up quite a bit. On Hanging Rock Road I saw 2 American Resstarts, 2 Black & White Warblers one female Black-throated Blue and 1 Nashville Warbler.

On Kuhn's Ridge Road I saw several Prairie Warblers and 1 yellow Palm Warbler.

Jim Green
Gaithersburg, MD

work in moderation, BIRD IN EXCESS!!!
     

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