Nancy and I led the first of a series of weekly spring migration walks along
the C&O Canal in Washington County today. The walks are sponsored by the
Potomac Valley Audubon Society (PVAS). The walks begin at 8:00 a.m. every
Wednesday at the C&O Canal parking lot between mileposts 72 and 73 and
accessed from MD Route 34 just before the bridge over the Potomac.

The walks are scheduled through the end of April and will extend into May
depending upon participation. We would like to see members of MOS,
especially those in the Washington County chapter, join us.

Today was cold and windy, but in a two-hour walk we had 35 species,
including 3 species of warbler and our first of the year gnatcatcher. The
full list is as follows:

  
 Double-crested Cormorant  5
 Turkey Vulture  1 
 Canada Goose  5   
 Wood Duck  4   
 Mallard  3   
 Lesser Scaup  5   
 Common Merganser  9
 Red-tailed Hawk  1
 Killdeer  1   
 Belted Kingfisher  1
 Red-bellied Woodpecker  2
 Downy Woodpecker  3
 Pileated Woodpecker  1
 Eastern Phoebe  4 
 American Crow  5  
 Fish Crow  3   
 Tree Swallow  10  
 Carolina Chickadee  8
 Tufted Titmouse  6
 White-breasted Nuthatch  2
 Brown Creeper  1  
 Carolina Wren  3  
 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  1
 American Robin  2 
 European Starling  5
 Cedar Waxwing  6  
 Yellow-rumped Warbler  8
 Pine Warbler  1   
 Palm Warbler  1   
 Eastern Towhee  1 
 Song Sparrow  2   
 White-throated Sparrow  3
 Dark-eyed Junco  1
 Northern Cardinal  3
 American Goldfinch  6

-- 
Elliot Kirschbaum
Shepherdstown, WV
kingfisher500 at adelphia dot net