Bicknell’s Thrush in Frederick County, Maryland September 13, 1999.

After 5 straight days of getting up at 4 AM and sitting in a dew covered field at Audrey Carroll Wildlife Preserve in Frederick County, I heard and recording the passing of a Bicknell's thrush.

Swainson's thrushes were very numerous, with hundreds of calls during the hour of 5:15 - 6:15 AM.

Veerys were a close second followed by a few Wood thrushes and only a handful of Hermits.

However, on Monday morning a distant call had that "sliding, two-syllabled sense" and the spectrogram proved it to be a Bicknell's.

Last year at this time there were several BITHs heard flying over ACWP as well as reports from Ospreyers observing them in the state.

Attached is an image that compares the call I heard on Monday morning with a call recorded in upstate NY by Bill Evans as published on his tape, "Nocturnal Flight Calls of Migrating Thrushes" 1990.

Wilbur Hershberger

Fred. Co.