I walked along the hiker/biker trail from Meadowbrook Lane and
East-West Hwy. north to this trail's intersection with the Audubon
Naturalist Society trail, from about 8:15 to 10 a.m. There was a lot
of activity but not a great variety of migrants. The most striking
thing I saw was an apparent immature-plumaged Cooper's hawk, which
landed on a stick nest in a tall pine near Audubon Naturalist Society
headquarters:
Saw the bird for only three seconds, a large (female?), streaked
accipiter overhead that once called "cuck" (surprised to see me?) and
landed in a stick nest near the crown of a tall pine right next to
the trail (just over 100 paces from the intersection with this Rock
Creek Park trail and that of the trail starting there and heading
left to Woodend). The bird had some tidbit of food in its bill which
it either devoured or deposited in the nest. It then settled on the
nest, only its tail tip protruding. It was gone when I returned 10
minutes later.
The next prize goes to the singing prothonotary warbler, first heard
around 11:05 not far west of Connecticut Avenue, at the edge of Rock
Creek along Beach Drive. I heard it again when I drove back home at
11:25, only this time it was closer to the intersection of Beach
Drive and Cedar Lane, again along the creek.
From this morning's walk, the following highlights:
yellow-throated vireo (1)
warbling vireo (3)
blue-headed vireo (1)
Nashville warbler (1)
yellow warbler (1)
northern parula (4)
eastern kingbird (5)
Acadian flycatcher (1)
wood thrush (2)
Swainson's thrush (1)
orchard oriole (2-4)
Baltimore oriole (close to a dozen)
Howard Youth
Bethesda, MD |