Lake Roland Reports
This page contains summaries of recent birding trips to Lake Roland in Baltimore County, MD.
See the Birder's Guide to Lake Roland for a description of the site.
Upcoming Baltimore Bird Club trips to Lake Roland are listsed in the BBC
Schedule
Tuesday, May 25, 1999
On this beautiful, fall-like day, we saw mainly summer residents at Lake
Roland. The prothonotary warbler was singing on territory-- but no one
has seen a female yet. A few yards away was a singing warbling vireo.
In the "park" area, we saw both blackpoll (migrant) and black and white
warblers. A female wood duck with babies was at the north end of the
lake. Among the other summer birds were both oriole species,
yellow-throated vireo, black-crowned night heron, and spotted sandpiper
(or was this last fellow just passing through?).
-- Peter Lev
Tuesday, May 18, 1999
A singing male Prothonotary Warbler was again at Lake Roland today, so
nesting is at least a possibility this year. DIRECTIONS: Take the main
path on the west side of the lake. Turn right onto the embankment path,
then another right on the path that leads down to a concrete platform.
>From the platform, take the stream path to the left about 50-100 yards,
listening for prothonotary song.
A total of 11 warblers was seen or heard,
including Canada and Blackpoll.
It was also a thrushy day; we encountered
Veery, Wood Thrush, Swainson's,
and Gray-cheeked/Bicknell's. Overall, 66
species were seen.
-- Peter Lev
Tuesday, May 11,
1999
This was an excellent birding day at Lake Roland. 16 warbler species were
seen, and 73 species overall. The bird of the day was a prothonotary
warbler. Shirley Geddes remembers when prothonotaries nested at Lake
Roland, but currently they are rare visitors during migration. Other
warblers of note were blue-winged and Kentucky. Both Baltimore and
orchard oriole were around, and a great egret was in the marsh north of
the lake.
-- Peter Lev (with help from Patsy Perlman)
Tuesday, May 4, 1999
Birding seemed slow today, although we counted a respectable 58 species.
After a week of northeast winds, neotropical migrants were sparse. We did
have a female scarlet tanager (seen) and a yellow-throated vireo (heard).
Lots of Northern parulas were around, but we saw a total of only 5 warbler
species. Shorebirds included a snipe, two solitary sandpipers (no, they
were not together) and a few peeps.
-- Peter Lev
Tuesday, April 27, 1999
A beautiful morning, and we had a nice group of migrating songbirds.
Orioles were prominently seen and heard--mostly Baltimores, but we had a
few orchards as well. Nine warbler species were counted, including
blue-winged, worm-eating, and Wilson's. Other arrivals were Eastern
kingbird, warbling vireo, and blue-headed vireo. Overall, we saw and/or
heard 62 species.
-- Peter Lev (with an assist from Shirley Geddes)
Tuesday, April 20, 1999
It's beginning to feel like migration. We saw 56 species today. Songbird
arrivals were white-eyed vireo, red-eyed vireo, Northern parula, and
Louisiana waterthrush. Three horned grebes in breeding plumage gave us
excellent looks. Other water birds were black-crowned night heron and
blue-winged teal. Raptors included barred owl, osprey, borad-winged and
red-tailed hawks. A yellow-bellied sapsucker was well-seen, and
ruby-crowned kinglets were found at several locations in the park.
-- Peter Lev
Tuesday, April 13, 1999
A sunny but windy day. We saw nothing extraordinary, just a nice list of
April birds: osprey, red-tailed hawk (several), tree and rough-winged
swallows, blue-gray gnatcatcher, both kinglets, palm and yellow-rumped
warblers. One birder wandered off on his own and saw a barred owl. 41
species were counted overall.
-- Peter Lev
Tuesday, March 30, 1999
Today we had 23 birders and 30 species on a lovely morning. Good birds
not seen last week were common loon (4 seen overhead), roughwing
swallow, and hooded merganser. Gadwell and Eastern phoebe were again
around.
-- Peter Lev
Tuesday, March 23, 1999
A cool morning, with partial sun. 29 species of birds.
Highlights were common merganser (not common at Lake Roland), gadwall,
and Eastern phoebe (5 or 6). Curiously, we did not see any rock doves,
starlings, house finches or house sparrows. It was a day for native
birds.
-- Peter Lev
Return to Baltimore Bird Club page.