Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 10:10:15 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Walter Ellison Subject: Kent County Big Day MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Everybody, This Sunday (the 19th) decided to try our hand at at single county Big Day after doing May Count last weekend. As usual for first time efforts we had some inefficiencies and I'm sure a better day is possible, but the day was good, intense fun with many rewards. We found 125 species. Our best find was a Sedge Wren singing in the marsh elder and needle rush along the Tubby Cove boardwalk at Eastern Neck NWR. In spite of being only 15 feet away from the walkway the bird stayed low and out of sight (grrrr!) but it was in persistent good voice ('tik-tik-chi-ch-ch-ch-chp'), dry and clipped, very different in nearly direct comparison to the many Marsh Wrens near the bridge at the Narrows. Other highlights were: more post-fallout flocks of Black-bellied Plovers, 85 total almost entirely in different fields than those checked on Saturday, 2 Ruddy Turnstones with our largest Black-belly flock on Route 20 east of Rock Hall, 2 Wilson's Warblers at Old St. Paul's, Bay-breasted Warblers at Chesapeake Farms and Millington WMA, Hooded Warbler near the DE line on No. 10 School Rd (Millington), 18 other warbler species including around 18 Blackpoll Warblers and 16 Magnolias, a female Summer Tanager on No. 10 School Rd, a displaying Cooper's Hawk on Walnut Tree Rd (Millington), two singing and calling Gray-cheeked Thrushes on Walnut Tree Rd, a Cliff Swallow at Chesapeake Farms, over 50 Least Terns at the Kent Plaza Mall nesting colony, 14 Caspian Terns at Eastern Neck, and a "Traill's" (Willow or Alder) Flycatcher at Sassafras Natural Area (the inverse of the Sedge Wren, well seen, no sound). Our worst miss was, um...Herring Gull. Don't think I've ever missed that one on a Big Day before. Oh well, nobody's prefect. Good Birding and Atlasing, Walter Ellison MD/DC Atlas Coordinator - MOS 23460 Clarissa Rd Chestertown, MD 21620-3645 410-778-9568 "A person who is looking for something doesn't travel very fast." - E. B. White ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================