Sorry everyone, one quick retraction:  I misidentified something else
(not surprising!):  Jim MOORE flushed the AMERICAN BITTERN the other
day, not Jim GREEN.

Best,

Dan HAAS.

On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 5:26 PM, Dan Haas <> wrote:
> I had a very interesting afternoon at Sands Road Park.    Frustrating
> in some of the misses.  Delight in the birds I was able to ID.
>
> Notable finds:  TWO, possibly three GRASSHOPPER SPARROWS, two
> BOBOLINKS, loads of Swamp, Savannah, Field and Song Sparrows and one
> WILSON'S WARBLER.
>
> MISSES / birds NOT making my eBird report:
> -a probable VESPER SPARROW.  The bird flushed from the top of the
> grassy hill, near an open dirt / gravel patch.  This particular
> sparrow seemed bigger than the Savannah Sparrows that I'd been
> flushing all afternoon, it's outer tail feathers looked light, but my
> view was far too brief to confirm it as a Vesper.
> -a silent fly-by DICKCISSEL.  It sure LOOKED like one, but uttered not
> a sound and flew South when I was on the far Western side of the park.
>
> And here is the BIG MISS!
>
> From the higher ground, just West of where Jim Green described where
> he flushed an AMERICAN BITTERN the other day... and where that SEDGE
> WREN was last fall (NO, neither bird was there today!), a big surprise
> flew out of the grasses. Near a deep ditch with small amounts of water
> in it, I flushed a RAIL.  The bird was completely black, had a bill
> with little length (in other words, not long like a Virginia, small
> like a Sora).  The bird popped up and flew about 25 feet to the North.
>  Again, the bird showed no rufous, no yellow, no gray... just BLACK.
> I walked that direction, and it flushed again, about the same distance
> in the opposite direction.  At that point I was unable to locate it,
> but I did hear some noises coming from the area, best described as
> very short squeaks.  I viewed the bird in flight twice from two angles
> (both looking down, so the sun wasn't an issue).
>
> I don't really know what to call it, since I can't say for certain it
> was a SORA, and can't say that it wasn't a BLACK RAIL, but in my often
> incorrect opinion, it was one or the other.  Anyone have any
> suggestions for how to put this bird in eBird?
>
> Sands Road Park, Anne Arundel, US-MD
> Oct 18, 2011 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM
> Protocol: Traveling
> 1.0 mile(s)
> 22 species
>
> Canada Goose  24
> Black Vulture  12
> Turkey Vulture  8
> Bald Eagle  1
> Blue Jay  1
> Carolina Chickadee  2
> Carolina Wren  1
> House Wren  1
> Eastern Bluebird  3
> Gray Catbird  1
> Palm Warbler (Western)  1
> Palm Warbler (Yellow)  1
> Yellow-rumped Warbler  2
> Wilson's Warbler  1
> Field Sparrow  3
> Savannah Sparrow  8
> Grasshopper Sparrow  2     Very likely three birds.  Photos soon to be
> posted here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nervousbird/
> Song Sparrow  10
> Swamp Sparrow  12
> White-throated Sparrow  2
> Northern Cardinal  2
> Bobolink  2
>
> This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)
>
> Good Birding,
>
> Dan Haas
> St. Margaret's, MD
> nervousbirdsatgmail.com
>

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