Dear All

I didn't get out to look for for the Hammond's Fly over the weekend but did 
manage a couple of hours in Battery Kemble Park on Sunday afternoon.  I am 
still new to birding in USA/DC and was looking for piney birds - Red-bstd 
Nuthatch, Pine Siskin, roosting owls or maybe a crossbill - since the 
Claudia Wilds book suggests that the park has conifers.  Following 
someone's posting I looked in advance at the park in Google Earth and was 
surprised how easy it was to spot the conifers (a pity that images of Rock 
Creek Park are taken when the trees are in full leaf so it's not possible 
to do this for the areas around our house).  

I was pleasantly surprised to find the park very birdy.  There is a big 
conifer tree in fruit just above the car park and this held several hundred 
birds, mostly Starlings and Robins but there were about 40 Cedar Waxwings 
and a dozen or so woodpeckers - Flickers, Red-bellied and Downy - hanging 
around there too.  

Amongst the numerous White-throated Sparrows I saw a really nice Fox 
Sparrow of the taiga form, showing well amongst the Holly and Beech trees.

The little stream was popular amongst the birds above for drinking and 
bathing so I sat and watched these for about 20 minutes and was delighted 
when a group of five chicakdees came in to drink.  One was clearly giving a 
much slower and drawn out call and whilst I only saw it alongside a 
Carolina for a few seconds, I saw the bird well and it showed all the 
features for Black-capped really clearly.  I was surprised how distinctive 
it was.   

Otherwise I saw no piney birds whatsoever and was slightly disappointed to 
find that the majority of the conifers were in back gardens and hence 
inaccessible to the budding owl finder.  

Having looked at the section on winter owl finding in Wilds I am not sure 
what the protocol is.  Do people refrain from giving details of either 
roosting owls or potential owl sites?  I have seen the odd posting of 
reports of Saw-whets in the last year so I guess people do report them and 
they are just very rare?  If there are good area to look, especailly for 
Saw-whet in the DC area I would be keen to do a regular check - if anyone 
feels like advising off-list I would appreciate it.

Cheers

Gary Allport


PS I see that the regular winter Ring-bills have moved into town in the 
last four days.  The 40-50 that sit on top of the block opposite my office 
are now settled in for the duration - winter cometh.