Hi all --

The overcast skies and gusty southerly breezes did not bode well for 
migrants today but, acting on the premise that "a bad day's birding is 
better than a good day doing almost anything else" we went to Wheaton 
Regional Park and Brookside Gardens for a couple of hours this morning.

Actually, there was a little early activity before the fitful sun
disappeared for 
good, mostly in the vines along the mini-train tracks and along Pine Lake. 
When it died, we went over to Brookside Gardens to check the snags for 
Olive-sideds. The ones in the Visitor's Center parking lot only hosted a 
couple of noisy Pewees but we struck gold with one on the snags at the 
back end of the Greenhouse (Conservatory) car park (where the butterfly 
exhibit is). Again a dark bird, showing its white flank patches and
sallying 
out for insects before returning to its perch.  This is a traditional perch 
where we have seen OSFL both in autumn and spring.

I should add that the greatest distance between all these sightings is 
about a mile (Brookside greenhouses to upper Shorefield parking lot) as 
the bird flies. The OSFL seen at Shorefield  earlier in the week was 
definitely a different individual form the one seen at Brookside on the 
same day, but whether today's bird is the same as on previous days -- 
that is, a lingering migrant -- whether these are new "faces" every day -- 
we have no way of knowing.

Other than that, a real decline in migrants of all kinds and those we saw 
probably hold-overs from yesterday.

Birds of interest:

Green Heron - 5
Great Blue Heron - 1
Chimney Swift - 3
Ruby-throated Hummingbird - 1
OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER - 1
Eastern Wood-pewee - 5
Red-eyed Vireo - 8
House Wren - 2 adults shepherding 3 fledglings
Eastern Bluebird - several, heard only
Blue-winged Warbler - 1, bright male 
Magnolia Warbler - 2
Canada Warbler - 3
Common Yellowthroat - 1
Eastern Towhee - 4
Chipping Sparrow - 2-3

Even the "usual suspects" seemed subdued and quiet...

Gail Mackiernan and Barry Cooper
Colesville, MD









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