When the water levels go down - i think the report for Harpers Ferry this
morning was over 12 feet - can someone make the effort to check for Cliff
Swallows nesting on the US 340 bridge south of Harpers Ferry? There is
bridge work underway there this spring and although there is NOT an historic
Cliff Swallow nesting colony at the site, all historic events have to begin
sometime. It would be nice to know, if THIS is the year that a colony
begins, that the construction did not adversely affect the birds. I've been
harping on this, i know, but MD DOT has shown itself not to be a reliable
partner in supporting conservation in the recent past.

Jim and all,

I do not think this bridge would be very attractive to Cliff Swallows. I
looked at it this AM and it is all steel construction under there. It
reminds me more of the Bay Bridge and more likely to attract a Peregrine
than swallows. The current work is pretty noisy (they were at it today) and
whatever they are doing up there, birds would not tolerate it. They have all
kinds of tenty looking stuff mounted on the bottom of the bridge and I am
sure no bird in its right mind would try to nest anywhere near it. My past
experience with Cliff Swallows on bridges is that they seem to want to hang
their mud nests on some concrete. It reminds them more of a rocky cliff than
steel does.

I did not see much swallow activity on the river today. There were a few
ROUGH-WINGS near the old railroad bridge and some CHIMNEY SWIFTS flew over.
That's it. To get the swallows going there has to be bugs coming off the
river and in its current state of mind, bugs would have a hard time doing
their thing. The river is so high and dirty that you could put in with a
kayak in Cumberland and be in DC in about 10 minutes, never mind the bump at
Great Falls. One big nasty river right now. I think we've had over 10" of
rain in April.

However the ORIOLES are at it big time. More of them there than there are at
Camden Yards during a home game. I got both BALTIMORE and ORCHARD. They are
so vocal you can hardly hear the rumbling river over them. I had one at eye
level along the trail and it flew to within 15' of me. WARBLING VIREOS are
also making a racket. Once again I found no Prothonotaries.

After a stop at an antique tractor show (I got to watch them start up a 1907
Waterloo Boy stationary engine. There are currently 3 in existence and this
is the only one that can run) I headed down Cap Stine Road to look for the
BOBOLINKS reported by Kathy Calvert. Yippee! They were all over one field
next to a drive to a farm that was owned by somebody named Stone. Thank you
Kathy for this one.

Jerry Tarbell
An antique of another kind in Carroll County

PS - in case nobody knows about Waterloo Boy, this is a company that John
Deere bought in 1918 when they decided to build tractors. Prior to that
Deere only made plows and other implements of destruction. My dad was born
in 1918. I may have been born after that but it's hard to say.

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