This morning I found an Alder Flycatcher on the Ma and Pa Heritage Trail in Bel Air.  It was singing for the entire 25 minutes I was there and they have been known to stick around for a few days so if anyone would like to try for it, here are directions:

It was on the Forest Hill section of the Ma and Pa Trail, entering from the parking lot at the corner of Melrose and Bynum Rd.  Heading north a few hundred yards, there is an opening on the left, with a mowed trail leading SW from the paved trail.  From this corner, I could always hear and sometimes see the Alder sitting in the small trees between the mowed trail and wetland another hundred feet down the paved trail.

Also, last night there were lots of warblers flying over my house in Forest Hill.  Unfortunately, the traffic noise is louder than at my parent's house a few miles away where I often had excellent flight call conditions.  As is typical of the middle of the night versus dawn, non-thrush calls dominated.  This was also one of the best night flights I've heard without having a single cuckoo.  

Kim and I sat out for 30 minutes and tried to keep track of what was flying over:

Warbler sp. - 60 calls, this might be a little low, but I think it's close.  Suprisingly, only ~25 were Blackpoll-type zeet notes, which is good news that there are still more non-Blackpoll migrants moving through.
Worm-eating Warbler - 2 giving classic double-zit notes
Common Yellowthroat - 2 
Bobolink - 1 presumably one bird gave 4 calls as it passed from south to north
Acadian Flycatcher - 1 very cool, only my 2nd ever at night, gave full song 4 times over 90 seconds from different places in the sky, I suspect this was the same bird flying around and not 4 different birds, but I really can't tell
Veery - 3
Swainson's Thrush - 10
Rose-breasted Grosbeak - 1
Indigo Bunting - 2
Blue Grosbeak - 1 a little surprising how regular I hear these in Bel Air given that their breeding range does not extend far north into Pennsylvania


Good birding!

Matt Hafner
Forest Hill, MD


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