A few new arrivals today worthy of note, and a question for others who bird
here:

Indigo Bunting singing at the south end of the lake, and a Scarlet Tanager
in the woods along the river road off Roxanna-New Burlington Road.
Red-headed Woodpecker was observed again after a (first ever for me at SV)
sighting on Friday.  The Friday bird was in a dead tree along the side of
the tilled field north of the parking area for the blind and boardwalk,
today's in the sycamore swamp on the west of the bike path where the
Prothonotaries always are.  I plucked seven wood ticks today, not my first
this year (Germantown Metropark 4/16), but my first at SV.

Warblers were fewer and less diverse than on other recent trips:
Prothonotaries, N. Parula, Yellow-throated, Yellow, and Common
Yellowthroat.  Baltimore and Orchard Oriole numbers are mounting, with lots
of song from both.

Does anyone else ever bird the trail leading north from near the base of the
boardwalk, and that grassy causeway splitting the marsh at its north end?  I
never see other birders up there, and the lack of garlic mustard trailside
kind of suggests disuse.  It often holds birds you won't encounter on
"Warbler Corner" or the boardwalk.  Friday, I heard Black-billed Cuckoo up
there and flushed an American Bittern from right next to the causeway, it's
hosted several White-eyed Vireos for a couple weeks now, and is pretty
reliable for Red-Shouldered and Accipiter Hawks.  In winter, the cornfield
at the far end of the north trail is loaded with White-crowned Sparrows, and
on a few occasions has held Cardinal flocks numbering in the hundreds.  I
don't always check it before spring, since the rabbit hunters run their
beagles there, it's dotted with deer blinds, and blaze orange makes me look
fat.  But this time of year I never skip it.

Bird well,

Paul

--
Paul Dubuc,
Dayton, OH
at sign beween pauldubuc and gmail dot com

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