On Wednesday, 14th June 2018 I went with my cousin on a ferry tour to Fort McHenry in Baltimore, where the United States' national anthem "The Star-Spangled Banner" was composed in 1812 after the Battle of Baltimore, where the people of Baltimore defended Baltimore from a naval attack by the British. Our departure point was from a jetty in the Inner Harbour beside the luxurious Sagamore Pendry Hotel which many would recognise from the police TV series called "The Wire" set in Baltimore and fans would recognise the building as the police precinct in that series.
It was a lovely sunny day and birds seen on the boat ride to Fort McHenry included Herring Gulls and a lot of Double-Crested Cormorants. Fort McHenry was very interesting with a flag ceremony and a museum and video about the incredible story of this important place in United States history and I would highly recommend it and it is a lovely boat ride.
At the Fort McHenry jetty, there were a few Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustico) flying around but there was also another brown hirundine on its own, and when it landed on a wire, I managed to get a few photos of it, albeit mainly of its back, and it was a Northern Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx serripennis) which gets its name from little barbed hooks on its primary wing feathers, and the edge of its wings had a feathery dishevelled look, and this was another new bird for me.
The main difference in appearance of the Northern Rough-winged Swallow from the most likely confusion species, the Bank Swallow (known as Sand Martin in Europe), is that it does not have a brown breast band like the Bank Swallow, and the Northern Rough-winged Swallow's chin and chest are a dirty white with mottled brown fading to a bright white belly, unlike the bright white colour on the chin and lower chest of the Bank Swallow.
And Northern Rough-winged Swallows are not as sociable as other species of swallow like Bank Swallows or Barn Swallows, and tend to feed on their own and they do not nest in large colonies like Bank Swallows. They nest in holes like Bank Swallows, but they often nest in holes made by others, including man-made holes like pipes, and this may help them adapt and live alongside humans in man-made environments. Bank Swallows are in trouble in the United States with diminishing ranges, but the Northern Rough-winged Swallows appear to be stable.
I had checked out of my hotel that morning as my cousin had invited me to stay in her place near Lake Roland in Towson, so we next headed north to Lake Roland. On the way we stopped at a shop and while I was waiting in the car for my cousin, I pointed my binoculars up out of the open car window and I could see circling vultures very high overhead. When I zoomed in on them with my zoom camera, I could see there was at least one Turkey Vulture and two Black Vultures (Coriagyps atratus) in the skies above me and the Black Vulture was another new bird for me.
It was nice to see the Turkey Vulture again, and in flight this time and to be able to compare it alongside the Black Vultures and the Turkey Vulture has a wider wingspan than the Black Vulture with a distinct elbow and a longer tail.
We then arrived at Lake Roland Park which is 500 acres of woodland, wetlands and parkland around Lake Roland and it also contains a dog park called Paw Point Dog Park which I think is a great thing for dogs and their owners and it gives the dogs space away from the rest of nature in the park.
We walked the boardwalk from the car park and the first animal we saw was a female White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus), also known as Virginia Deer which is native to the Americas and up until then the only wild mammals I had seen on my trip were grey squirrels in New York and Baltimore cities.
I then noticed a small bird moving in the trees and I was lucky to get one photo of it before it flitted off and disappeared from view, and it was a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea) and that was another new bird tick for me.
Next I noticed a larger and more colourful bird on a tree and it was a Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) with a bright red nape and black and white patterned back and wings, and it really was a stunning looking bird.
At the end of the boardwalk we arrived at the Lake Roland Nature Center, and outside it was a sign giving a list of recently sighted birds in the park, and the two birds that I saw above were on it.
We walked on a little further until we crossed a little bridge over Jones Falls, a river that feeds into Lake Roland Dam on the lake and I could see some Mallard ducks on the river shore below and a couple of Barn Swallows in flight.
We then turned back the way we came and we saw the doe alongside the boardwalk again and then another new bird for me, a rather punk rock looking Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) who was singing, and he was deep crimson red colour but his feathers looked worn. Instead of an impressive crest, this bird looked like he had been scalped and left with a Mohican or Mowhawk hairstyle, and some of his Mohican/Mowhawk feathers looked purple or blue rather than red, adding to the punk rock effect. It definitely looked like another bird had plucked his crest, whether that would have been another male in battle or he may have hen-pecked!
I must say that I really liked Lake Roland Park and it is the kind of place I could spend days exploring and birdwatching.
We left Lake Roland Park and headed to my cousin's home nearby, and one of her neighbours had a bird feeder up which was attracting some very nice birds, American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) and House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus), which were two more ticks for me.
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