Common Goldeneye

Not much happening in the rain at MNC this mornig. Definite Highlight was a lone male Common Goldeneye on Lake Frank - a first for the year and for the patch. Number 128 for the year. Only one more outing next week before the end of this year.

Couple of Hoodies on Lake Needwood

There should be T-shirts that say: I love Cold Fronts

Well, I am back from my nuptials, which means my attention can shift from my wife back to my other love, birds and this blog. Even better, a honeymoon trip to Belize in December is arranged and will take care of both wife and birds, without either side in risk of feeling neglected - perfect! But back closer to home, more precisely to the good old patch at Meadowside. The first weekend back at the end of September brought a flurry of good quality warblers including a Cerulean. Somewhat disappointing has been my failure to see a Connecticut's, which by now every half-blind birder in Maryland has seen, although most of these may be masqueraded Common Yellowthroats - yes that is my sheer envy speaking. Well this morning was wet and cold and birdy, just the way I like it. The cold front clearly had an impact on migration especially waterfowl. The usually devoid-of-anything-interesting Lake Frank had Ruddy Ducks and Blue-winged Teal and Lake Needwood had a surprise in the form of a A. Black Duck, sweet! Other birds of interest were Gray-cheeked Thrush, Blue-headed vireo and Purple Finch. Again no bloody Connecticut's. Nice treat at Blue Mash was a Orange-crowned Warbler, haven't seen many of those in late years. And I also had short view of what I thought was a good fit for Connecticuts or possibly even Mourning Warbler, but the bird never resurfaced and the flashing view I got of this bird just could not make it count. Keep trying Dan, just keep trying.

New year birds of today's outing were: Gray-cheeked Thrush, American Black Duck and Purple Finch which were also patch ticks. Year list: 121, patch list: 130. Three more months to go for the year - Bring it on!

Wedding impressions:

Fall migration under way

Managed to get on the patch Saturday morning and Sunday. Good numbers of warblers around at least on Sunday although diversity could have been somewhat better. Still added a good number of patch birds:

1) Veery
2) Magnolia Warbler
3) Tennessee Warbler
4) Red-breasted Nuthatch
5) Common Nighthawk


Blue Mash was pretty quiet with the exception of 5 Blue-winged Teal and a disturbingly mutilated Canada Goose - not a pretty sight at all.

Total year tally for MNC stands at 115. I hope I will get to the patch one more time before my wedding. Then I will report from the Connecticut coast which should hold some nice birds at this time of year. Can't wait.. oh yes and I will get married, too.

Montezuma - shore bird bonanza

Before I get to Montezuma just a quick addendum. Birding at Meadowside, I think it was the 4th of August yielded a single patch addition: yellow-billed Cuckoo. They seem to be getting quite vocal towards the end of season, so an expected patch tick.

More recently over the past weekend I had the pleasure of enjoying an evening of spectacular shorebird birding at the Knox-Marsellus marsh of Montezuma. Another pleasant surprise was how many fellow birders I ran into, all lured in by the appearance of a Buff-breasted Sandpiper, more to that in just a flash. Other highlights included a Wilson's Phalarope (one possibly two), 1 Red-necked Phalarope, tons of peeps and Yellowlegs, Short-billed Dowitcher, 2 American Golden Plovers, Snipe and what not. A lot of stuff was way out and at time hard to ID. Non-shorebird highlights was a Eastern Screech Owl vocalizing - I hadn't heard/seen one in ages and two Viriginia Rails, one feeding out in the open the other calling at dusk - very cool! When I heard about all the excitement about the Buffy I was somewhat surprised given that I found one last year, albeit much later in the season in the second cell of the marsh. Back then I reported the bird to a volunteer at the visitor center and was told that Buffies are quite regular during migration. As it turns out they are not that regular and actually quite scarce. I went back to my ebird records and it turns out I discovered the grasspiper on the 28th of September of 2011, quite late I would assume. Well I could have had hero status - I guess more importantly other people could have seen and confirmed it - bugger!

Mid-summer birding and man's (not Dan's) best friend

Work has been treating me badly of lately and hence it has been a while since I had birded Meadowside. Although I started at 7am the heat, mosquitos and inconsiderate dog walkers soon became a nuisance. A few things had changed since last time: pretty much all Tree Swallows had left the park. I assume they had finished their brood and start dispersing from here onwards. I was surprised to hear the 'chuk' call of two Orchard Orioles and get brief views of one female, perhaps they are breeding. The water levels at Lake Frank were pretty high, so my hopes of seeing shorebirds were quickly dashed. Just one word of caution: the consequences from last week's storm are obvious, uprooted trees etc. so be prepared to climb over and crawl under trees in your way. I then left the park and moved over to Blue Mash. 4 Least Sandpipers and 1 Spotted Sandpipers together with a handful of Killdeer were pretty much it. But the exposed mudflats should attract something more unusual soon - I am sure of it.
You pet lovers probably wonder what's wrong with me to keep mentioning my dislike of dogs and their owners. Well here it is- I really don't mind dogs so much...ah crap - screw this. I flipping hate dogs: they stink, they are flea-infested, they bark nonstop - do I really need to go on. But you are right I shouldn't hate on dogs. Instead it should be evident that the dog owners and not the dog itself is responsible for ill-behaviour. Well have it you ignorant wallybrains: Which part of the sign" Keep your dog on a leash' do you not understand?? And why do you assume that I love dogs and want to cuddle and touch them everytime you pass me? And why do I have to make way for you to pass because you feel so f*** superior with a carnivore under your control? And why must you yell childish phrases like 'come here' and 'get that' from the top of your voice (don't get me started on dog whistles); once upon a time the woods were a pieceful, tranquil place before 'Dumb and Lassie' invaded. Gosh, that felt so good!

One of 3 Green Herons at Blue Mash today

Escape from the storm

It was time for my monthly to bi-monthly trip to the Fingerlakes to visit the missus. The timing seemed just perfect as vicious storms hit Maryland on my way out leaving many homes at least temporarily without power. I managed to get my birding hit on Sunday morning starting on the wildlife drive of the Montezuma NWR. For a mid-summer day the birding was cracking with lots of activity at all corners of the reserve. I added a whopping 24 species to the year list; highlights being an American Bittern, Bobolinks, a single Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Bonaparte's Gulls and an Alder Flycatcher on the towpath. A few shorebirds in the form of Least Sandpipers, Short-billed Dowitchers, Spotted Sandpipers, Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs were around. No sign of the Ruff that was seen last week, though. As ever this place amazes time after time and I just wished I could bird there more often. We are half-way through the year and the Montezuma year list stands at 92, the total patch list at 134.

Summer lull

One new patch (Meadowside Nature Center) addition: Eastern Kingbird (1 pair was flying across Lake Frank). Total patch tally: 119.

Pair of Tree Swallows with young peeking out.

MDOsprey soap opera and some birding at Montezuma

Lord Almighty! A week of bickering and tossing of insults at each other on the MDOsprey eventually lead to the shut-down of the MDOsprey. Talk about drama and who said birders are boring?? At this point, simply a thanks from me to Norm Saunders who has been organizing the listserv and also thanks to the organizers of the new listserv that have been trying to facilitate a smooth transitioning. Everything should be back to normal and I think an extension on the limit of listserv users will benefit the MD birding community (that is if tedious postings with private conversations between retirees with too much time are kept to a minimum). If you would like to join the new listserv, send an email to mdbirding+subscribe AT googlegroups.com and reply to the confirmation email.

The time for birding has been short at lately. Nonetheless I insisted on some birding time up in Upstate New York at Montezuma. The birding was nice although done under time pressure and in sweltering heat. Highlights of the afternoon were 3 Black Terns that have returned to breed at the Montezuma Marsh. Also a good number of patch birds were added, mainly breeders: Green Heron, Rock Pigeon, Great-Crested Flycatcher, Yellow Warbler, Indigo Bunting and Baltimore Oriole. Also twoTraills Flycatchers were seen, however they kept quiet which made a positive ID impossible. The total patch list for Montezuma stands now at 126.

almost summer but not quite

Relatively slow morning on Saturday at the MNC, one addition to the patch list was a Willow Flycatcher giving off 'whit' notes. Overall the area by the stream has been quite nice for flycatchers in general. Otherwise only notable migrant was a Prairie Warbler. At Blue Mash I added FOY Eastern Flycatcher and Lesser Yellowlegs. Several Yellow Warblers gave nice views, several Prairies were heard as well. Well, seems like things are winding down now until fall. Time for a trip to Montezuma where things should be a little more interesting even at this time of year.
We are on 108 species for the year and 118 for the patch.

A day in May

Nice day at the MNC. Highlights were two Blue-winged Teal that stuck to the same corner of the lake as where they were found last week. Other additions to the patch year list were Bald Eagle (I assume it was a migrant), Great-Horned Owl (heard twice), Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Yellow-throated Vireo, Northern-Rough Winged Swallow, Northern Waterthrush, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Prairie Warbler and a Rose-breasted Grosbeak that kindly came to the feeders. Total tally for the year: 107, total patch list @ 117. Time to turn up something more unusual. I have plenty of suggestions but would not want to jinx it.

Blue-winged Teal pair

Bazinga! Now you see me now you don't

Great morning at Meadowside: Although warbler activity was not that great, I bagged a tally of 61 species in the end - not too shabby! And I guess I missed a few species especially warblers because many songs were heard, but to get visual confirmation seemed impossible at times. Quite frustrating and I thought I could hear them call Bazinga, Bazinga. The highlights of the morning were 9 species of warblers, Blackburnian and Hooded (heard only) the best among them. This was the best day I ever had in terms of Orioles, both Orchards and Baltimores were around, at one point even side by side in the same tree. Altogether 2 Warbling Vireos were had, one by the Nature Center, the other one along the road by Lake Needwood. At Lake Frank I ran into another birder who kindly pointed out 2 Blue-winged Teals - Nice and Thanks! Another great bird was found at the Lake Frank entrance off Timothy road: a Swainson's Thrush was giving great fews.
So in summary, we added to the patch list: Blue-winged Teal, Green Heron, Killdeer, Barred Owl, Chimney Swift, Eastern Wood Pee-wee, Acadian Flycatcher, Warbling Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Swainson's Thrus, Hooded Warbler, American Redstart, Blackburnian Warbler, Scarlet Tanage, Indigo Bunting, Orchard Oriole, Baltimore Oriole - total tally 109, year patch list @ 98.

Migs at the patch!

After a two-week break I was back at the patch and, boy, I did not regret it. It was slow to begin with but once I hit the trail that follows the river, things picked up with regards to neotropical migrants. In the end I tallied 10 species of warbler and I am pretty sure I missed one or two that I just could not ID in bad light. Altogether I added a whopping 13 new species to the year list: Osprey, Solitary Sandpiper, Great-crested Flycatcher, Blue-headed Vireo, Barn Swallow, Wood Thrush, Ovenbird, Louisiana Waterthrush, Black-and-White, Yellow, Black-throated Blue and Black-throated Green Warbler, Common Yellowthroat and Blue Grosbeak and we are at 80 species for the year, and 92 total patch birds. Not a bad day at all.

The night before I decided to drive over to Fran Uhler Natural Area to listen for Whip-poor Wills. As I got there I ran into Wayne Baumgartner. As we got ready to walk down to the river, with torch, tape, flint, you name it, anything to get us through the night, we realized one bird was calling right behind us at the barrier. We actually saw the bird's silhoutte swooping about in the dark and it kept calling for another 30 minutes. Nice! Now it's time to sack a Chuck-wills widow.

Osprey at Lake Needwood

The plan for the weekend was a road trip to Shenandoah, but that changed once we realized the weather was not that great and we already ran pretty late for it on Sunday. We still made it into Virginia but closer to home: the Occoquan NWR in Woodbridge. It's the closest NWR from the DC area and a prime birding spot with open meadows, marshes great for sparrows and rails, and the bay of the Potomac which is great for ducks, grebes, eagles, gulls etc. Since I promised the missus that I would not stop too often to look for birds and stick to the plan of making this a hike, I did not end up seeing too many birds. Also, the rain came down pretty heavy at the time. Still a few FOY highlights to be mentioned: At least 3 pairs of Ospreys were back on their nests. Also a couple of warblers were seen or heard: Yellow-rumped, Tennessee, Prothonatary Warbler (one each) and many Common Yellowthroats were out and about. When I looped back around the trail and passed the ponds to my left I heard a bird which I am now 80% sure was a King Rail (they have been reported from the site recently) but never got any visual. A good day out despite the miserable weather. I will be back with a report from the local patch next week.

More spring stuff

The weekend brought in a decent number of new patch as well as year birds at MNC (Meadowside Nature Center - why I keep abbreviating as MNR I have no clue). Among them some rather tarty birds I should have seen by now - but there you go.

New additions to the patch list: Common Grackle (are you shitting me?), Northern Mockingbird (yes, they are surprisingly uncommon), Purple Martin (well, if they had cleaned out the gourds once a year, I could have seen one a long time ago, but I guess that's too much to ask), Broad-winged hawk (nice), Ruddy Duck (why must I comment on every bird I don't know), Northern Parula .Total number of species: 79
Number of 2012 species:  66, new addition: all of the above (duh!) and Palm Warbler

Lake Frank delivers

It was a great morning @ MNR with a tally of 45 species. The first good bird of the morning was a White-eyed Vireo up the hill from the parking lot devouring a fat old caterpillar. It was clear from the start that a large number of Ruby-crowns had moved in and their subdued tsi tsi tsi song was heard often. Down by the pond a flock of 8 or so Tree Swallows was zipping around with at least on pair feeding young in one of the nest boxes. Two Blue-gray gnatcatchers were added on the way. At the junction between Muncaster Trail and Piney Run a patch tick in the form of two Brown Thrashers set the pace for the morning. At Lake  Frank which appeared initially dead, two great patch birds namely a hot-looking breeding plumage Common Loon and Horned Grebe were on show. Of course I did not miss the opportunity to take some craptastic pictures which I am sure will make you want to stab your eyes out with a rusty nail or something.

In terms of warblers only Pine and Yellow-rumps around today, but that should really be picking up from here on now.

MNR year: 58
MNR total: 73

It's raining cats and ducks!

Just a quick follow-up to the note below and the REV sighting. I realized at the time REVs are starting to come in typically in mid April in Maryland and I tried indeed to get visual confirmation of the bird. Unfortunately, the general area was not easily accessible and the bird seemed to sit high up. So it's certainly not a rock-solid record and I did not put into ebird. But given that the first REV appear now in Georgia this may have not been totally impossible and I was confident of the ID at the time. Moving up to Upstate New Yorks where signs of spring were visible also. Despite heavy rain all day Sunday, I finally managed to do some waterfowl birding at Montezuma in the afternoon. The diversity of ducks and geese I saw in just under an hour of productive birding was astounding and probably the result of a small fallout: 17 species of ducks and geese with highlights such as 1 Redhead, several Blue-winged teal, 2 Bufflehead, Ruddy Ducks, many Canvasbacks and several Common Mergansers. I am sure if I had had more time I could have turned up more species even. For the statisticians among you: We are at 47 species for the year and 120 patch ticks with Common Merganser, Blue-winged teal and Ruddy Duck being new additions for the site.

After-work jaunt

Not much to report from an hour or so of after-work birding. Highlight was a singing Red-eyed Vireo - patch bird no. 69 and pretty early. I must say it's pleasant to only hear one before their song becomes a pain in your ear. Still no Yellow-throated warblers or gnatcatchers...                   or Kirtland's warbler....

More spring arrivals and C&O canal

I swung by MNR after this Friday evening and was surprised to find good bird activity. Spring arrivals in the form of Swamp Sparrow (2) and one Pine Warbler were the highlights among 32 species that I tallied in just under an hour. At Lake Needwood, a high count of 17 Double-crested Cormorants was present, probably stopping over on their way to somewhere.
Sunday then I took a colleague out on his virgin birding trip to the C&O canal. Like many beginners Dan  brought his 'opera' binoculars and quickly realized the importance of optics in the game. I was quick in flamboyantly showing off my Zeiss binoculars and scope but I know well enough that my birding optics are the reason I live on a diet of QuickNoodles now. The birding itself was kind of slow. Best birds were found on and over the river with a flock of 20 or so Tree Swallows, cormorants and rafts of Common Mergansers, Ring-necked Ducks and one Herring Gull. As far as I know this is the only reliable site for Common Mergansers in Montgomery County. Only other notable bird was a singing Savannah Sparrow that seemed to get noticed all over the state this weekend.

Sprinter is here

talk about a dumb title, ha! It meant to refer to that short twilight period of birding that we will find ourselves in for the next, say 1-4 weeks, with winter hanger-ons and new spring arrivals mixed in. Today was still pretty quiet in that respect @ Meadowside Nature Center. Only notables were FOS Chipping Sparrow, 1 single Tree Swallow, a single Phoebe and several Wood Ducks. Most of the Ring-necks and Hoodies had left the lakes with only 2 Hoodies remaining. 4 Pied-billed Grebes was a high count for me on L. Needwood and worth trying to take some extraordinarily crappy pictures. Well, I will blame it on the fog.

It's a pied-billed Grebe - just take my word for it

1 of 6 juncos at Lake Needwood

Tundra Bonanza

This was a real roller coaster weather-wise in the Fingerlake region this week end. Coming in on Friday night, it was freezing and I drove through at times heavy snowfall. Sunday came with spring-like temperatures and the winter jacket was replaced by a T-shirt. Anyways, since I am not some old geeser with bladder problems this is as much as I want to discuss the weather. This made for ideal conditions (and light) to go out and view some birds at Montezuma. The place was hootchin with geese, ducks and swans. I counted a whopping 180 Tundra Swans. Trumpeters are resident over summer, but I haven't had Tundras on the site. A single Snow Goose was on site, which I still wish to be a Ross's. Passing over the river, I found 4 Goldeneyes, a species common on the lakes, but new to me on the actual Montezuma premises. I am gutted now in hindsight to find out that a Northern Shrike was present, some place close but the word didn't get out to me, just great!

A. Tree Sparrow

180 Tundra Swans!

Barren winter land

This was my first time birding the Montezuma in the new year and also in truly wintery conditions. The previous day brought 1-2 inches of snow and the pools were mostly frozen over. The towpath was pretty much devoid of birds. The marsh held a surprisingly low diversity of water birds with Canada Geese and large numbers of pintails but little else to speak of. Better duck diversity was found on the wildlife drive loop, which by the way was closed due to icy road conditions and had to be walked. The majority of dabblers were Ring-necks. Mixed in were 1 N. Shoveler, 2 Green-winged teal, 2 A. Wigeons, 2 Lesser Scaup, 1 Gadwall, several A. Black Ducks and A. Coots. The highlight was a vocal flock of around 20 American Tree Sparrows near May's Pool that added an additional species to the Montezuma patch list.

No signs of spring

Nipped by MNR briefly after work. A Great Blue Heron was stalking prey at the small pond. GBHs are common at Lake Needwood but I have never had them at Lake Frank or the small pond. A yellow-bellied sapsucker was a new MNR bird for the year and my second for the site. Time for birding has been agonizingly thin especially with goodies such as Virginia's Warbler and Pink-footed Goose in the state. As a consequence the blog has been mostly dead. Measures for resuscitation are under way...

Herring Gull and 2012 preview

Today was the first time I made it out to MNR in the new year. What is wrong with this year’s winter?? Where do you have to go these days to get a decent day of winter birding with crisp sub-zero temperatures? Winter birding is all about the sadistic pleasures of numb hands, frozen naughty bits and wiping snot off your nose with those new gloves you got for Christmas - what happened to all that? Anyhow, enough of this! The birding was slow, so slow I was tempted to count the Barred Owl that is kept in the rehab enclosure by the Visitor’s Center. Things picked up at the usual stop by Lake Needwood. Good numbers of ducks on the lake: Ring-necks and Hoodies. A pleasant surprise were 3 Black Vultures and 1 Herring Gull soaring over the lake. Both welcome additions to the patch list, which stands at 65 currently. By the way, Herring Gull was a new entry to the site’s ebird list – who would have thought. Let’s take a look at 2012 – what can realistically be expected from MNR this year. Well we still have a couple of weeks to turn up a Snowy Owl, of which many have been found pretty much everywhere in the nation apart from Maryland. The main resolution is to keep birding the site as regularly as work allows. If that means I get out there at least 2-3 times a month and I can crank up that rate during migration we should see some nice stuff and keep building that patch list. Apart from MNR, Montezuma in Upstate New York will be visited around once a month during the year. Montezuma is one hell of a place for birds and never disappoints. The site's personal list already stands at 113 and it will be interesting to see what we can add over the year. I am not sure if a trip to Germany will work out this year, but since I haven't gone over last year I should really try this Xmas. How great would it be to add some birding sites from Deutschland onto the blog.  A new year's resolution for the blog itself will be to keep the blog child-friendly and vulgar-free during those days of eventless summer-lull birding. Yes - we can!

Birds, weed and reggae

Ovenbird at Hope Gardens

Yellow-billed Parrot

... are the 3 prominent impressions that I took from my visit to Jamaica, although I would have preferred more birds and less of the weed smell and blasting of reggae music from our loitering neighbors.
Getting around on a (my) budget turned out to be problem, especially since car rentals were booked out and ridiculously overprized. So the little time I had spared for birding was spend in the Kingston area, the  Hope Gardens in Kingston to be precise. I will put information for this birding spot on my blog shortly. If for whatever messed-up reason you happen to visit Kingston (not exactly a hot spot for tourists), the Gardens are relatively easy to get to and safe to bird.

Jamaican Oriole

Streamertail

Hope Gardens are great for neotropical migrants in winter and some of the more easy to find endemics. I birded there twice just past the turn of the year and had BLACK-THROATED BLUE, PALM. CAPE-MAY, PRAIRIE AND YELLOW-THROATED WARBLERS, OVENBIRD & NORTHER PARULA and the very common AMERICAN REDSTART.  At Fort Clarence, a beach, south of Kingston in the Greater Portmore area, I picked up YELLOW WARBLER and NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH, both relatively common winter visitors in Jamaica, bringing the total for warblers to 11 species. Among endemics I found BLACK-BILLED STREAMERTAIL, YELLOW-BILLED PARROT, JAMAICAN EUPHONIA, JAMAICAN ORIOLE, JAMAICAN WOODPECKER, WHITE-CHINNED THRUSH and SAD FLYCATCHER. All of these are relatively easy to find. A nice bonus was the NORTHERN POTOO that snoozed in a tree along the entrance road; they are common but always hard to spot. The total tally of endemics, including my previous visit 3 years ago, stands currently at 13 or 46% out of a 28 possible Jamaican endemics. So plenty more birds left to see on another visit...

N. Potoo