I headed over to the Regency Boulevard ponds where I found 29 species. Notables included 2 Wood Ducks, 3 Blue-winged Teal, 4 Northern Shovelers, 2 Gadwall, 2 Green-winged Teal, 5 Killdeer, 3 Greater and one Lesser Yellowlegs, and a pretty early and distant Eastern Kingbird.
A Chipping Sparrow sang near the fence along the north pond.
As expected, the amount of waterfowl at the Silver Crest Road pond had dwindled to 3 Ruddy Ducks plus a Great Blue Heron and a Double-crested Cormorant.
I stopped at the Newburg Park retention pond, which was formerly called the "West Gremar Road retention pond" before Newburg Park was created. It held one Greater Yellowlegs and a Killdeer.
It always amazes me how fate can determine an outcome. I was planning on using Georgetown Road to get to the Christian Springs Road pond, but there was a road construction backup at that intersection, so I decided to use Gremar Road instead to get there. Halfway between the Bath-Newburg Road and Route 946 along Gremar Road are the two original retention ponds that were made years ago before any houses were built in the Trio Farms development. At that time, they were known as the "Gremar Road retention ponds". I now refer to them as the "Trio Farms Boulevard retention ponds" since that's the name of the street that runs by them. After the houses were built surrounding those ponds, it seems that the migrants have since preferred the more open pond at the park.
As I was driving past those original ponds, I noticed a Pied-billed Grebe in the smaller, front pond. I parked and walked over to it to see if I could get a photo of the grebe. That's when I noticed a Common Gallinule out in the open headed for a cattail patch by the concrete culvert! I quickly grabbed some photos of it before it disappeared into that thick cattail patch.
I sent out a text alert about the gallinule and waited around a half-hour for it to hopefully re-emerge from the cattails, but it never did. I then got a nice photo of the grebe.
So in regards to fate, had the construction not steered me down Gremar Road, and if I wouldn't have seen the grebe, I would have never seen the gallinule. Delayed by its sighting, I finally made it to the Christian Springs Road pond where I found 12 Lesser Yellowlegs and a Pectoral Sandpiper.
A quick check of Green Pond didn't find any notable waterfowl, herons, or shorebirds, but I did spot a Cliff Swallow among several Tree Swallows and 2 Northern Rough-winged Swallows. Its white forehead and buffy rump patch clinched the identification, but its flight was too erratic for a photo.
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