Paul & I took a walk today, beginning in our Windsor Hills
neighborhood, and through part of Leakin Park.

We've had a House Wren singing in the yard since Friday; 
and have seen a Wren on the back porch nest box.  

We visited the Red-shouldered Hawks which are nesting 
in the deep fork of a Tulip Poplar  on Prince George's Road.
A bird was on the nest, and, as we watched, two crows making 
deep guttural calls buzzed the second bird.   At one point, both 
crows stood on a stick nest-in-the-making in a nearby tree.   
We were distracted by an additional two hawks soaring in the sky 
and had good looks at two Broad-winged Hawks.   Later that 
morning, we had a Broad-wing Hawk over Leakin Park. 

We stopped at the Yellow-crowned Heron nests on Windsor Mill 
Road across from the parking lot  next to the Gwynns falls.  We 
had two birds on a branch together there on April 1st, raising 
their long feathers in a courtship display.  We've have seen only
one bird on a few occasions since then, although we have stopped 
by almost every morning. 

In Leakin Park today, we had our first White-eyed Vireo of the year 
in the Park and the first Catbird.   Notable were the number of Cowbirds
 - small noisy flocks of them - and the number of Ruby-crowned 
Kinglets, some singing.  In the yard today I had two facing off, 
one with a tuft of orange-red sticking up like cotton candy.  

A notable bird was a hunting Barred Owl seen at noon.  It was alone 
with no harassers, flying low across Hutton Avenue to land in a tree 
about 15 feet up.  It seemed very aware of us at first, and relocated 
to a higher perch, where it began scanning the ground, and 
swiveling its head, sometimes completely around, leaving the rest of 
its body in place.   We had made ourselves comfortable on the side of 
the bridge, and were just leaving when we heard several loud chip 
notes and saw bird disappear over the bank of the stream.  We were 
fortunate again to see a Louisiana Waterthrush in this same spot 
where we saw two last Saturday.  Last Saturday, we had a bird 
preening in a tree and occasionally bursting into a single song.   
We left when our arms were too tired to hold the binoculars any more.  

Elise Kreiss
Baltimore City

Turkey Vulture
Cooper's Hawk 
Red-shouldered Hawk
Broad-winged Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Rock Dove
Morning Dove
Barred Owl
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
White-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Louisiana Waterthrush
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow 
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Cardinal
Brown-headed Cowbird
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Elise Kreiss
Baltimore City
near Leakin Park