By Ian Stewart
Equestrians at Fair Hill NRMA by Ian Stewart.
On Saturday June 3rd, 2023 a dozen birders spent a sunny morning exploring Fair Hill Natural Resources Management Area just over the border in Maryland. We started off in the grassy meadows around the Appleton Road parking lot where we soon picked up our two target birds, Bobolink and Eastern Meadowlark. We got good views of both species with several male Bobolinks doing their descending display flight and heard
many blasts of their distinctive tinkling song. Both species were life birds to some participants!
Male Bobolink by Ian Stewart.
We then went into the woods and picked up several good birds like a male Scarlet Tanager, Wood Thrush, Veery and Yellow-throated Vireo. Some of us finished the morning around the Nature Center where we got great views of male Baltimore Orioles, American Redstarts and Northern Parulas. This is an excellent yet seriously under birded location with some great trails to explore and is just 20 minutes from Newark, and I highly recommend you give it a try.