Home»WesternMaryland_Spring 2015

Our annual Spring visit to Garrett County, the westernmost county of Maryland and completely in the Allegheny Plateau 'province'. This is Maryland's little piece of Canada, complete with hemlock forests and cranberry bogs. At an average elevation of 2300 ft it gets about 12 feet of snow each winter. Our main reason to visit is that it is home to about 20 different species of breeding warblers, some commoner, some rarer. This is because there is overlap here between the southern species and species with a more northern distribution well into Canada. This year, we saw or heard 14 species. In mid-May, these and numerous other birds are arriving from far and near for breeding and are setting up nesting. It is also a time for the early spring wildflowers. Spring was at the same stage here in mid-May as we encountered in South Carolina in late March/early April. The 6-week difference is accounted for by both higher elevation and higher latitude.