On my out, after seeing the Vesper Sparrows, I saw a Grasshopper Sparrow
cross the road and land for a moment on the phragmites near the end of the
field trail. I was attempting to find a swallow that was dropping down over
the water when the Grasshopper popped up and distracted me. I turned my back
on the mystery swallow for a minute and it was gone.
I missed the Eastern Kingbird and Ring-necked Pheasant; but found several
Green-winged Teal. I'll echo Matt -- the Common Loon flight was very, very
impressive.
Good to meet you Matt. Thanks Jon.
--
Keith Eric Costley
Randallstown, Baltimore County
On Thu, Apr 14, 2011 at 7:50 AM, Matt Hafner <> wrote:
> I stopped in at SWAP before work this morning hoping to see some Vesper
> Sparrows. I was able to find 2, but the real highlight was the Common Loon
> flight that occurred while I was there. I carefully counted loose flocks of
> Common Loons as they were flying over and ended up with 273 birds! Keith
> Costley was coming in as I was leaving and hopefully he can add more during
> the time he was there.
>
> Other interesting birds were 11 Northern Shovelers, Ring-necked Pheasant
> (glad to know they are still somewhere), and my first of the year Eastern
> Kingbird. At the light rail station, a mockingbird was imitating Eastern
> Kingbird so it took a little bit of the surprise out when a kingbird dropped
> into a tree by the boat ramp.
>
> Full ebird list below.
>
> Good birding,
>
> Matt Hafner
> Forest Hill, MD
>
> Location: Southwest Area Park
> Observation date: 4/14/11
> Number of species: 36
> Canada Goose 8
> Mallard 3
> Northern Shoveler 11
> Ring-necked Pheasant 1 crowed once, SWAP is one of the last
> strongholds for this species in Central Maryland.
> Common Loon 273 ***High Count*** All flyovers carefully counted
> heading north starting around 6:40am and continuing through when I left. I
> even saw 2 more, not included in this count, as I was driving to work.
> Mostly in loose flocks of 10-40 birds.
> Double-crested Cormorant 8
> Osprey 2
> Bald Eagle 1
> Ring-billed Gull 14
> Caspian Tern 2
> Rock Pigeon 4
> Mourning Dove 3
> Chimney Swift 1 flew through my binoculars while counting a loon
> flock
> Belted Kingfisher 1
> Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 7
> Eastern Kingbird 1
> Fish Crow 6
> Tree Swallow 5
> Carolina Chickadee 2
> Carolina Wren 1
> Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
> American Robin 16
> Northern Mockingbird 2
> Brown Thrasher 1
> European Starling 25
> Common Yellowthroat 2
> Field Sparrow 4
> Vesper Sparrow 2 ***UNCOMMON*** though regular here in migration.
> County bird for me.
> Savannah Sparrow (Eastern) 5
> Song Sparrow 12
> Swamp Sparrow 9 Several singing
> White-throated Sparrow 6
> Northern Cardinal 4
> Red-winged Blackbird 36
> Brown-headed Cowbird 1
> House Finch 2
> This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)
>
>
>
>
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