Hi Everybody:

On Tuesday, May 24th I led a Montgomery County Bird Club trip to Washington County. Eight of us met at the McDonalds just north of the Clear Spring exit off of Interstate 70 at 6:30 AM. The participants were Helen Patton, Kathy Calvert, Jackie Cooper, Duvall Soller and his daughter Lisa, Brad Cernohorsky, Ron Gutberlet and myself. I will give you the route that we followed first and then mention the highlights at the various locations. Little did we know that we would not see or hear any migrant passerines the entire day.

We started at Blairs Valley Lake in Indian Springs WMA and walked part way around the lake checking field and forest edges. The water level was high on the lake and we saw nothing on the lake or any sign of shorebirds on edges because they were all underwater. Our next stops in succession were Hanging Rock Road (including the side road that leads up to the AT& T property at the top of the road), Catholic Church Road, Mooresville Rd, Kuhn's Ridge Rd, Camp Harding County Park (where we had a delightful lunch break), Park Head Rd, Stumpf Rd and Broadfording Rd (the entire length from Clear Spring to Hagerstown). We then concentrated on potential shorebird habitats from late afternoon on. We had made a last minute decision to skip Little Pool so we forfeited some potential new birds for the day along the C&O Canal. This was our tradeoff for driving further west, trying and failing on Cerulean Warbler (reported by Jim Moore on Stumpf Road several weeks ago). Around the western side of Hagerstown we checked several potential shorebird areas with little success. We continued on to check the Hagerstown Regional Airport fields and the wetland behind the airport which still resembles a small lake more than a wetland. After that we checked the Funkstown Lagoons (nothing here, surprisingly completely dry and overgrown; however we did see 4 Red Foxes), Mt. Aetna/White Hall Rds flooded field (which was 80% drier than it was two weeks ago), the Rt. 66 wetland just north of Horseshoe Lane (a single Spotted Sandpiper), the Rench Road Wetlands accessed from the railroad tracks (only 1 Spotted Sandpiper here) and finally finished at the retention pond at the intersection of Poffenberger Rd and Maids Fancy Way. 

Highlights at our various locations follow:

BLAIRS VALLEY LAKE AREA: Our only Blue-winged Warbler, Double-crested Cormorants (3 flyovers), Yellow-billed Cuckoo and Bank Swallow for the day.

HANGING ROCK ROAD (AT&T): Our only Yellow-throated Vireo and Worm-eating Warbler for the day.

MOORESVILLE ROAD: Common Raven (also on Catholic Church Rd) and our only Broad-winged Hawks (3).

KUHN'S RIDGE RD.: Our only Pine Warbler.

CAMP HARDING COUNTY PARK : Our only Warbling Vireos.

PARK HEAD ROAD: Our only Yellow-breasted Chat

BROADFORDING ROAD: Our only American Kestrel, Eastern Kingbirds, Bobolinks (a pair), and Horned Larks. We also had Grasshopper Sparrows and Eastern Meadowlarks.

WET FIELD NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF MT. AETNA & WHITE HALL RDS: We pulled up to the area on the far side of the road. I was immediately disappointed because the field was substantially dried up from several weeks ago when Dave Weesner had a Dunlin here and then Brad Lanning found the two Glossy Ibis in the same location. From inside our cars we quickly saw 2 Killdeer and then I saw a shorebird which was facing away from me with its rump in the air and feeding in very shallow water. I said out loud Yellowlegs to Ron & Kathy in our car (thinking Lesser) and then realized that the bird had BLACK LEGS. It then turned sideways and I yelled "PHALAROPE".  I quickly let the others in the cars behind us know that we had a WILSON'S PHALAROPE (male). We saw the phalarope at about 6 PM and spent the next 40 minutes observing and documenting the bird with pictures and video (Ron & Jackie). When first seen it was only about 50 feet from the road and then moved further back into the field.

We started making phone calls. I left a message for Dave Weesner and then called Judy Linga and she informed me that the Washington Bird Club was meeting that evening nearby and she would spread the news. Before we left several members of the club stopped by on their way to the meeting  and they got to see the phalarope as well. We left about 6:45 to continue our trip. Dave Weesner called later to inform us that their club's impromptu bird trip to see the phalarope was successful.

Our last two stops were Rench Rd and then Poffenberger Rd/Maids Fancy Way. At this final stop we saw the continuing SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER along with 3 Least Sandpipers and 2 Killdeer. On the other side of Poffenberger Rd. we had a WILLOW FLYCATCHER singing  for over 30 minutes.

We did not have enough time left in the day to enjoy the Antietam National Battlefild area but needless to say it was a memorable day in Washington County. 

Despite the lack of migrant passerines we tallied 90 species.

Jim Green
Gaithersburg, MD

work in moderation,BIRD IN EXCESS!!!
 


  

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