Here and there...
Norm Saunders (osprey@ARI.Net)
Sun, 23 Aug 1998 11:50:46 -0500
Saturday morning, Fran and I went up to Frederick County to
explore some areas west of New Design Road and, hopefully, to find
some grasspipers. While the areas we explored (Doubs Road, Cap
Stine Road, others) are definitely worth revisiting later this fall and
into the winter, we did not, alas, find any Upland Sandpipers,
American Golden Plovers or Buff-breasted Sandpipers. The best
bird of the morning turned out to be a Blue Grosbeak seen at the top
of a tree on the south side of Lilypons Road.
This morning (Sunday) we wanted to follow up on reports posted on
Marvadel the past several days regarding Black Terns in the
Potomac River off Jones Point. We arrived about 9 am and did
indeed find at least half a dozen Black Terns flying over the distant
hydrilla mats, out in the Potomac River. The birds were, for the
most part, in Maryland waters (hurray! new state bird!) but they did
at times fly north far enough to cross the District Line into DC
waters (double-hurray! new DC bird!!).
You should know that these birds are definitely scope birds and
even then not a great view. We watched them long enough to pin
down all the relevent field marks and also tallied numbers of Caspian
Terns, Forster's Terns, Great Blue Herons, and Double-crested
Cormorants bobbing around in the river or on the dense hydrilla
mats.
Finally, for those of you who (like us) have been procrastinating
about getting downtown to see the Virginia Rail, be aware that it was
seen by us this morning at 10:30 at the Enid Haupt Gardens. We
searched for almost 45 minutes before finally locating the bird
outside the gardens under the bushes by the main gate, facing
Independence Avenue.
Best,
Norm
===============
Norm Saunders
Colesville, MD
osprey@ari.net