Hi All,

The weather could have been a bit better, but it managed to not rain most of the time and we even saw a little of that elusive Solar friend of ours for a short time yesterday down along Maryland's Atlantic shore. Our birding highlights were largely winter holdovers as befits a mostly gray early April day that did not climb out of the clammy forties.

Peter Mann met Nancy, Ian and I at the Dollar Store lot in Chestertown and we drove down to the shore wondering about the spitting rain on our windshield. We started our birding at West Ocean City Pond in a light rain and had a decent time scanning 11 waterfowl species highlighted by a hen Hooded Merganser, 54 Canvasbacks hanging on, a drake pintail, and 36 shovelers. On the way to Ocean City we stopped briefly at Hooper's Crab House and saw some typical denizens of the Coastal Bays including a great close look at a pair of oystercatchers - one of whom demonstated bivalve opening technique on a ribbed mussel; 24 Long-tailed Ducks in disconcerting intermediate light and dark plumages; and a fly by Snowy Egret. 

We were joined at the Inlet by Tom and Sharon Bradford and their friend Susan Zevin of Severna Park. The Inlet was in good form. There was a single very white first winter GLAUCOUS GULL panhandling bread crumbs with the other more common gulls in the parking lot. An adult ICELAND GULL (likely the same that has been oft reported this winter) joined the Herring Gulls on the low tide rocks on the sea wall within the Inlet. The COMMON EIDER flock rode the four foot swells outside of the south jetty. Loons of both regular species were everywhere. A few Purple Sandpipers and Brant fed along the south jetty. There were three Great Cormorants on the south jetty with an adult in gorgeous full summer plumage including frosty sideburns, and bright silver-dollar patches on the flanks. In the out of context department were three Blue-winged Teal that gave a thought to landing among the black ducks around the South Jetty before flying off. At Fourth Street the best sighting was of a single Boat-tailed Grackle feeding on one of the islands offshore.

From Ocean City we went west and south. At Eagles Nest Campground there were over 500 Dunlin; at least 4 oystercatchers; 100 Sanderling; 20 Black-bellied Plovers; 210 Red-breasted Mergansers; 80 Brant; and *seven* PIPING PLOVERS. We also enjoyed seeing two Horned Grebes in full summer plumage. Assateague Island provided nice sparkling views of a dozen gannets flying over and sitting on the ocean during our brief flirtation with the sun, and an adult Bald Eagle who snatched a fish out of the ocean and headed bayward with its burden. We also had two Great Egrets among the ponies and sika "deer" - to me the "elk" is the Eurasian elk which we call the moose, our "elk" is first cousin to the red deer of Eurasia - in the marsh.

On the way home we stopped occasionally to look at birds. In the wet borrow pit just west of the Wicomico River crossing on US-50 in Salisbury there were 4 Greater Yellowlegs, and 6 Lesser Yellowlegs. We saw a few lingering Snow Geese in fields along the way, and had Tundra Swan, Gadwall, and Green-winged Teal at or near the MD-309 Pond off MD-213 in Queen Anne's County. The last birds new to the trip list were the roosted Black Vultures in Chestertown as we dropped off Peter for the day. From there Walter went home to root for the UConn Huskies in the FInal Four, a layover from his days as a masters student in Storrs, CT.  

Complete species list:
Snow Goose (en route), Canada Goose, Brant, Tundra Swan (en route - Rt 309), Wood Duck, Gadwall, American Wigeon, American Black Duck, Mallard, Blue-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, Northern Pintail, Green-winged Teal, Canvasback, Ring-necked Duck, Lesser Scaup, Common Eider, Surf Scoter, Black Scoter, Long-tailed Duck, Bufflehead, Hooded Merganser, Red-breasted Merganser, Red-throated Loon, Common Loon, Horned Grebe, Northern Gannet, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Black Vulture (Chestertown), Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Bald Eagle, Red-tailed Hawk, American Coot, Black-bellied Plover, Piping Plover, Killdeer, American Oystercatcher, Greater Yellowlegs (Wicomico Co), Lesser Yellowlegs (Wicomico Co), Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, Purple Sandpiper, Dunlin, Laughing Gull, Bonaparte's Gull, Ring-billed Gull, Herring Gull, Iceland Gull, Glaucous Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Forster's Tern, Rock Pigeon, Mourning Dove, Belted Kingfisher, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Eastern Phoebe, Blue Jay (en route), American Crow (en route), Fish Crow, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, Eastern Bluebird, American Robin, Northern Mockingbird, European Starling, Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler, Pine Warbler, Song Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, Eastern Meadowlark, Common Grackle, Boat-tailed Grackle, House Finch, American Goldfinch, House Sparrow.

Have Some Wonderful Birds Everybody,

Walter 

23460 Clarissa Road
Chestertown, MD 21620
phone: 410-778-9568
e-mail: 

"A person who is looking for something doesn't travel very fast" - E. B. White (in "Stuart Little")

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