Hi Everybody: 
I spent a full day birding in western Md both starting and ending my day in Washington County (what could be better?) sandwiched around the rest of the day spent in Allegany County. My only A.M. stop was at Blairs Valley Lake and I arrived predawn. I spent about 15 minutes listening until I had enough of first daylight to scan the lake. The only interesting birds I heard were WILD TURKEYS calling from multiple directions. A careful scan of the lake proved to me that fisherman both with and without boats outnumbered the pair of Canada Geese by about a 10:1 ratio. I then walked down in the wetland area below the lake and among the field and swamp sparrows singing I heard initially about 4-5 single notes of a SORA and shortly after that it gave its "winny" call. I have always hoped to find a rail or sora or something good down here but never really thought it would come to fruition. After it gave its "winny" call I did not hear it again. 

I spent about an hour at Rocky Gap St. PK checking out Lake Habib from various vantage points. On the lake were 2 COMMON LOONS (non-breeding plumage), 7 BONAPARTE'S GULLS (in assorted plumages which was a nice study sitting close to the beach for about 10 minutes) and a single HORNED GREBE (full breeding plumage).  Flying over the lake were 3 species of SWALLOWS: 1 BARN, 3 TREE and 3 N. ROUGH-WINGED. Just inside the campground entrance was 1 BG GNATCATCHER and 1 HOUSE WREN (my foy). There were also 13 A. COOTS on the lake.

Quick stops at the Cumberland Terminus (Killdeer and Mallards) and at North Branch produced nothing unusual. The tarps at North Branch were 90% dry with only a few small puddles.

I then did a circular route  in the area north of Frostburg and Mt Savage. On Blank Road I heard a YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER singing. Bald Knob Rd and Mill Lane had numerous singing EASTERN MEADOWLARKS (2 and 6 respectively). My heart raced for a quick second when I spotted a Purple Martin house on Bald Knob Rd which are almost as scarce to find in Allegany County as Purple Martins themseles but soonafter it returned to normal when there were 3 Tree Swallows sitting on it.

The pond on Pinto Rd just south of Cresaptown had several species of waterfowl most notable of which was a pair of BLUE-WINGED TEAL. The teal, several WOOD DUCKS and Mallards were all sitting on some of the horizontal exposed pipes while I was there which was about 12:30 PM. There was also 1 PIED-BILLED GREBE and a female BUFFLEHEAD.

I checked a few areas further south of Cresaptown and then headed back to I-68. I rechecked both the Terminus in Cumberland and North Branch a second time but the results were about the same. I did a farily quick northerly midday drive through Green Ridge St. Pk using Daily and Green Ridge Rds but it was very quiet. On the drive east I exited  at Clear Spring and drove east across Broadfording Rd. I saw 3 WILSON'S SNIPE, numerous E. Meadowlarks, 1 WILD TURKEY (which flew across the road), heard HORNED LARKS several times and watched 1 VESPER SPARROW gorging itself on a large caterpillar.

As always it was a great day to be out!

Jim Green
Gaithersburg, MD

work in moderation, BIRD IN EXCESS!!!

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