WESTERN MARYLAND
Old Legislative Road, Finzel Swamp, and New Germany State
Park
12 May 2021
Wanting a break from our humdrum office
work, Chuck Burg and I took off for the chilly heights of Frostburg, Maryland
on a Tuesday evening. We stayed that night in a Frostburg motel with the idea that the next day we would have 6 good morning hours of birding before returning back to the
grind.
Our focus was three sweet birding spots near Frostburg: Old Legislative Road, Finzel Swamp, and New Germany State Park. In mid- to late-May these high elevation refuges can be bristling with transient migrants and recently-arrived breeders.
We rose at 0515 and after a hot
cup of coffee and a short drive we parked the car at the bottom of Old Legislative
Road. Why this country spot just south of the hamlet of Klondike is named so, I
do not know.
Our first target bird was Henslow’s
Sparrow. It nests in the scruffy old fields on the hills east of the road, an
area that formerly was a surface coal mine. It seems Henslow’s Sparrows can’t
get enough of revegetated strip mines in the interior highlands.
Within minutes Chuck was hearing singing males. It took me a bit longer. My hearing aids are good, but require that I get close to this reclusive sparrow to hear it singing its high-pitched song--sl-link!.
The habitat is a mix of grass and
low shrubs and old stalks of weedy forbs from the previous autumn. This is a place where you want to be
in tall rubber boots, as this is tick country, though on this particular
morning there was a hard frost, so I suspect the ticks were moving slowly,
waiting for the warming sun.
The Henslow’s is perhaps Maryland’s rarest nesting sparrow. It is thus always special to spend time with this bird. We wandered the weedy fields, flushing perhaps 6 singing male Henslow’s and also several Grasshopper Sparrows and quite a few Field Sparrows.
This is how we got our “sparrow
fix.” Very satisfying... The day was glorious, with deep blue skies and puffy
white clouds passing overhead. Birds were in song everywhere... Eastern
Meadowlarks moved about. Yellowthroats and Yellow Warblers were vocal. This is
the wonder of spring in Maryland.
We then walked the edges of the regenerating woodlands, dominated by honeysuckle bushes and locust trees. Small groups of deer moved out when we approached... We were now hunting for the buzzy song of the territorial male Golden-winged Warbler. This is one of the few places in Maryland where there is a chance to encounter this species on territory.
The eastern woody edges did not
produce, so we moseyed over to the west field and immediately struck “gold”—a single
male singing from a locust on a hillside not far from our parked car. We spent
fifteen minutes with this confiding bird, one of the most sought-after of our wood
warblers.
After a hearty breakfast at the
Princess Restaurant in Frostburg, we stopped briefly at the boardwalk at Finzel
Swamp. Its a beautiful spot nearly 3,000 feet above sea level, with remnant
American Larch (tamarack) in the wetland. We heard North Waterthrush and
Rose-breasted Grosbeak and Swamp Sparrow but not too much else... This is a
place best visited at dawn, but our dawn had been invested elsewhere...
A 20-minute drive took us to New
Germany State Park, which has lovely stands of healthy Eastern Hemlocks. Here
we walked the woodsy edges and also took the Hemlock Trail down into a hemlock
ravine. Singing Blue-headed Vireo, Hermit Thrush, Black-throated Green Warbler,
and Ovenbird were the highlights. Ravens croaked overhead. A noisy Chipping
Sparrow we tried to make into a Worm-eating Warbler (no luck)... New Germany is
one of the prettiest woodland parks in Maryland and worth more time (a great
place to camp for a few nights).
Our birding was complete by Noon, and we hustled east, stopping at Weaver’s Family restaurant in Hancock, before saying our farewells, and heading back to the computer and the backed-up emails...
Next stop, Anchorage, Alaska!
Beautiful photos, Bruce! Safe travels to Alaska!
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