When I got to the parking lot, I saw the cars of Adam Miller and Mike Schall there. I slowly walked the Appalachian Trail, hoping for the long shot of seeing a Connecticut Warbler, but that didn't happen. I have very little luck finding that species and it looks like this will be another year without seeing one. Soon after, I got a text from Adam that he was looking at an Eastern Whip-poor-will! Adam said it flew from beside the trail and luckily landed on top of one of the nearby rocks. Within a minute, I caught up with him and Mike and got great looks and photos of this rarely well-seen, nocturnal bird.
After thoroughly enjoying this cooperative bird, we continued on up to the top of the mountain. There were numbers of both Golden-crowned and Ruby-crowned Kinglets plus a Blue-headed Vireo and a Yellow-rumped Warbler. There was a fairly good flight at the hawk watch in the short time I was there, which included 5 Bald Eagles, a Peregrine Falcon, a Northern Harrier, 2 American Kestrels, Sharp-shinned Hawk and Cooper's Hawks, and a few Common Ravens.
I headed back down the trail and stopped to see if the Whip-poor-will was still there. It was on the same rock, but it had repositioned itself to where you could only see the head of it.
I left there and drove to the Regency Boulevard ponds. I counted 21 Lesser Yellowlegs and 2 Greater Yellowlegs all lined up on the yellow boom in the south pond.
Four Green-winged Teal and a Great Blue Heron were also present. I left there and stopped at the Newburg Park retention pond. It held 2 Killdeer, a Pectoral Sandpiper, and one Least Sandpiper.
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