QAS Blackwater NWR weekend - Part 1

On March 24 & 25, a group from the Quittapahilla Audubon society made a seasonal trip to the Blackwater National Wildlife Area in Cambridge. Md. - this is a summary of that trip.

Blackwater NWF  

On Friday, March 24, all 8 members attending the trip, met in Cornwall - set up the car pooling and driving directions and left for our first stop - the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center (CBEC) in Grasonville, Maryland.We decided to stay off the Interstate roadway system for the trip down, and to instead take a more scenic route thru the country in hope of observing more bird species (and less traffic) on the way down to our first stop in Grasonsville.

Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center link 

 Location:

600 Discovery Lane
Grasonville, MD 21638
PH 410-827-6694

Traffic, as it turned out, was rather light, and we arrived at the CBEC around 11:15am, to somewhat overcast skies, but with the temps rising to the upper 60's - it was going to be a rather nice day. Our first destination was the visitors center, where we met with some very friendly employee's and volunteers - who reviewed with us what was being seen recently and where we may be able to observe a nesting Great Horned Owl and  a Cackling Goose on the grounds.

As started walking the blue trail from the parking lot, our species count was at 14...adding a FOY (first of year) Eastern Phoebe to the list and several other common species including Carolina Chickadee & Turkey Vulture. 

Our target species for this area was the Brown Headed Nuthatch. And as we walked along the beginning wooded section of the blue trail, we could hear many of Brown Headed Nuthatches calling...but could not any see them. After some frustrating minutes trying to observe them, in the very tops of the pines and not having very much luck (other than a few quick glances) - we decided to move along to another area along the trail and to an observation platform overlooking the Hog Bay area. The observation platform gave us just enough height, to see the nuthatches, and as luck would have it, several flew into the pines almost directly in front of us, giving everyone good looks at in the now almost prefect sunlight that was beginning to peek thru the clouds - for five members of the group the Brown Headed Nuthatch was a life bird!! Target species #1 was in the books.

View looking to Kent Narrows  - there are thousands of waterfowl sitting on the water

Brown Headed nuthatch - stock photo

View from Platform - there are rafts of waterfowl on the pond.

As we began scanning the water from the platform overlooking Hog Bay (see map), we where observed several hundred Canvasbacks, many Lesser & Greater Scaups, Red Throated Mergansers, Buffleheads and several thousand of Ruddy Ducks. - our trip total now was at 28 species. I can say that for everyone in the group we have never seen so many Ruddy Ducks concentrated in one area - there were just rafts and rafts of them as far as we could see along the entire length of the Hog Bay- a truly amazing site. After departing from the platform, we continue along the trail to the area where we had been informed you could observe the nesting Great Horned Owl, and sure enough the after taking a few minutes to locate the nest - we did in fact see the Great Horned Owl, sitting on the nest...a nice unexpected addition to the trip species listing.

Great Horned Owl - stock photo

 After several minutes and picture taking at the owl nest, we continued or trek along the loop trail. As we walked, was began to see movement on the Bayberry bushes along the trail  - and that could only mean one thing - Yellow Rumped warblers at this time of the year - and sure enough we observed several moving in and out of the Bayberry bushes feeding on the seeds. Another FOY bird for many in the group.

Yellow Rumped Warbler - Id chart

We continued along the trail observing several more species including: Song Sparrows, Cardinals, Tree Swallows, Osprey, and another FOY species - a  Brown Thrasher. We did additionally, see the Cackling Goose mixed in with the Canada Geese..another life bird for 4 members of the group.

Cackling Goose at left behind Canada Geese

We ended our walk near the visitors center with a total of 37 species - and hitting our target species and the Great Horned Owl and the Cackling Goose as a surprise added bonus.After a quick snack, we returned to our vehicles to continue our journey to Cambridge and Blackwater NWR - the time was 3pm we had spent 3 hours completing the blue loop trail.

We decided to have dinner when we arrived in Cambridge and then drive to the Blackwater NWR Maple Dam Road area, in hopes of seeing the Short Eared Owls that had been recently reported in the area.
We arrived at the Maple Dam Road area around 6:30 pm and for the next 1-1/2 hours looked for the Owls, but had no luck..I think maybe the recent controlled burn (see photo below) in the area may have caused them to move to a different  area. A bonus was the observation of the Gary Ghost - a male Northern Harrier - that was in the area giving us several good views the entire time we waited for the owls.

At 8:15pm, we checked into the hotel, at 8:45pm we met in the hotel lobby and reviewed our checklists for the day and at 10:00pm, almost everyone was retired for the evening after a long day of birding.

 We ended the day with a total of 63 species.

Controlled burn area. near Short Eared Owl site

Jim & Fritz watching for the Owls as the sun set

Part 2 of this post - will be on the Blackwater NWR portion of the trip. 

Until Next time - Good Birding.