I started out early this morning for some of the recent St. Mary's County
birds, hoping to stay ahead of the weather, and arrived at the Point Lookout
area around 0630 to do some pre-dawn owling. No luck in that regard, so as
daylight broke I tried for Sedge Wren at the S curve on Cornfield Harbor
Road. I was striking out there too when Tyler Bell and Jane Kostenko drove
up. The three of us moved down to the little bridge on Cornfield Harbor
Drive, where we got no response to Tyler's judicious iPod playback. We'd just
about given up when a SEDGE WREN called several times spontaneously from a
patch of what looked like needlerush, just beyond and to the right of the
bridge.
Tyler and Jane left to check out the point while I searched unsuccessfully
for the previously reported TREE SPARROW. I then made a quick loop through
Point Lookout, but with the weather threatening I decided to go for the
Barrow's while I could. I walked to the end of the road at Elms Park, then
veered left along the edge of the pond to approach the beach. A real surprise
here was a first-year WHITE-EYED VIREO in the reeds at the pond's edge,
consorting with chickadees and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet.
The male BARROW'S GOLDENEYE was fairly easy to spot from the bluff
described by Tyler in a previous post. It was with the larger of two flocks of
COMMON GOLDENEYE, near the more northerly pound nets.The heavy black markings
in the scapulars and the black bar on the side of the breast were easier to
see from a distance than the distinctive white mark on the face. During
the walk up the beach I also encountered a flock of 42 BONAPARTE'S GULLS
roosting on the beach with a smaller number of Ring-bills.
A big thanks to Tyler Bell for finding and providing directions to this
great bird, and to all of those who have posted updates.
Joel Martin
Catonsville, MD
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