Since it wasn't raining yet, I drove over to Hereford and went back on
Bunker Hill Road to part of Gunpowder Falls. For those of you unfamiliar
with this place, Bunker Hill Road, which cuts under Rt 83 just north of
Hereford High, was once a paved road that can now be more accurately
described as partially paved. It's a mess and I'm not sure I would drive a
nice car back there. My stupid little truck does it fine.

Once you get back to the park, there is a parking lot on the left. I noticed
a sign that said "Bunker Hill Trail Head". So I took that rather than the
more easily navigated trail off the other end of the lot. It turned out to
be one of those twists of fate. The trail follows the ridge back toward the
river and there is a smaller stream down below on the left. I saw something
move down there along the stream and it turned out to be a TURKEY that had
evidently noticed some fool moving on the trail up above and was trying to
escape unseen. Me and my bins outsmarted it.

NORTHERN PARULA singing from a Sycamore along the river. One of the nice
things about birding in April is that the leaves aren't really out yet and
you can scan the naked trees for your birds. I scanned that one completely
and never found the Parula. So much for the leaf-free advantages. Also had
my first OVENBIRD sing, but it was too far off to look for. Other than some
GNATCATCHERS and a fisherman, there wasn't much back there.
    The fisherman told me that he turned around earlier and found a big
heron standing behind him on a log watching him fish . He was using a
copper-weighted nymph with a Hendrickson dry fly dropper/strike indicator
for those of you that understand this stuff. I just get the dry fly part
because that's all I do. Nymphs and streamers just frustrate me. With a dry
I can see where it is, what it's doing and best of all I can see when
something grabs it off the surface. Call me a control freak but I catch a
lot of fish.

Jerry Tarbell
Keeping my Gunpowder dry in Carroll County

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