I spent the early part of Sunday morning on Long Neck Rd. in St. Mary's Co.
The best birds seen here were 2 Cattle Egrets, 1 Palm Warbler (Eastern) and
2 White-crowned Sparrows. I then ventured into Point Lookout St. Pk. which
was overall very unbirdy. I had 2 Common Loons fly by the point. I found
another Eastern Palm Warbler and then spent some time walking the trails at
the fort. I saw 2 Hermit Thrushes.

Upon leaving I drove down both Cornfield Harbor Rd. and Drive. In between I
drove down the dirt road that leads to the hunter's parking lot (Jacob
property). On the way out I had nice looks at a VESPER SPARROW perched on
top of one of the plastic sapling protector shields.

I then headed towards Beauvue ponds to see what waterfowl was there. I was
scannning from various places along Abell's Wharf Road. As I faced the
ponds and was scanning (with the scope) the closest leftmost pond I saw
some movement in the water just off of the far bank. There were Amer.
Coots, Mallards and Pied-billed Grebes moving about as I stayed on a bird
swimming back and forth but constantly hugging the vegetation at the edge
of the water off of the far bank. It was quite a distance away and I only
had a 30 power fixed lens on my scope. I notice a grayish coot-like bird
with white undertail coverts. At times I thought I saw a hint of a
horizontal flank stripe but was not sure. The tip of the bill appeared to
be lighter than the base of the bill. When the bird finally moved about 10
feet away from the bank and then swam to the left I could clearly see the
flank stripe. I was pretty sure that I was looking at a juvenile COMMON
MOORHEN but would have liked a better view. I called several local birders
and Patty Craig said that she could be there in about 30 minutes (and she
had a zoom lens on her scope up to 60 power). I told her I would gladly
wait until she arrived. I also had called Pat Rose who could not
immediately make it. She called me back and said that she had posted it as
a potential Common Moorhen.

For the next 25 minutes I had occasional good looks and became increasingly
certain of the ID. As luck would have it the bird seemed to disappear
several minutes before Patty arrived. I relocated the bird shortly after
she arrived and it continued to hug the edge of the far bank. We were
finally able to both get good looks through her scope and confirmed the ID
as a juvenile COMMON MOORHEN. I then let Pat know of the confirmation. I
first saw the bird at 12:30 PM and when I left Patty it was about 1:30 PM.

Jim Green
Gaithersburg, MD

work in moderation, BIRD IN EXCESS!!!


On Sun, Oct 30, 2011 at 1:17 PM, Patricia Rose <> wrote:

> It is an immature common moorhen.
> Jim just called with the confirmation.
> Congrats again Jim.
>
> Patricia Viola Rose
> 240-256-5423 cell
>
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> > From: Patricia Rose <>
> > Date: October 30, 2011 12:48:56 PM EDT
> > To: 
> > Subject: [MDOSPREY] Possible imm common moorhen at Beauvue ponds
> > Reply-To: Patricia Rose <>
> >
>
> > Jim Green has given me a call and he has a possible imm common moorhen
> in the far left pond at Beauvue pond in St Mary's county. Shortly another
> scope will be on it and will repost then.
> > Nice find Jim
> >
> > Patricia Viola Rose
> > 240-256-5423 cell
> >
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