Heat Wave Birding
Norm Saunders (osprey@ARI.Net)
Sun, 31 May 1998 19:15:03 -0500
Saturday morning I wandered in Hughes Hollow for a few hours. I was hoping
for Least Bittern but it appears the impoundments have been nuked with a
defoliant--anyone know what's causing the massive aquatic vegetation die-off
there? This isn't a new phenomenon, by the way--I've asked this same
question in each of the past three years (on The Osprey's Nest) and never
received a good answer. Maybe now with the broader subscriber-ship we can
find out what is being done to Hughes Hollow.
Anyway, I had good looks at a pair of Yellow Warblers flirting with each other,
a singing Willow Flycatcher, and a juvenile male Orchard Oriole. A few calling
Blackpoll Warblers were the only evidence of non-breeding migrants all
morning.
This morning, Sunday, Fran and I went first to Piney Run Park, up in Carroll
County, with notable lack of success. We must just not know this park well
enough because we were looking for what should have been easy species--
barn and tree swallow, chimney swift, great blue heron, and red-winged
blackbird--and we didn't see nary a one there!
Moving along, we stumbled on an area previously unknown to us--Morgan Run
Natural Environment Area (seemingly a DNR-run dog-training and horse-riding
area) that gave us some great looks at about a half-dozen or so Grasshopper
Sparrows. All told we saw about 50 species in this grassland-dominated park--
well worth an early morning wander--we'll be back there for sure!
Dickcissel on Lilypons Road. Drive past the water gardens, cross the bridge,
and head up the road to where the fields first open out, with fence lines along
either side of the road. Here we watched the bird displaying on a fencepost
from about ten feet away for almost 30 minutes. What a show!
where we found a good-sized group of Cliff Swallows nesting under the C&O
Canal Aqueduct across Seneca Creek, just before it opens out into the
Potomac.
So, those were the high-point birds of the weekend!
Stay cool, all!
Norm
===============
Norm Saunders
Colesville, MD
osprey@ari.net