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Subject:

Worcester Birds on Saturday, 10 April

From:

Norm Saunders

Reply-To:

Maryland Birds & Birding

Date:

Sun, 11 Apr 2004 10:46:38 +0000

We didn't make our usual Friday-afternoon drive to the shore because of late meetings and income taxes (gack) but we did break away early Saturday morning for the drive down.  Along Rt. 50, about 5 miles west of Ocean City, I spotted 6 Wild Turkeys, one of them an obvious male, all puffed up and strutting for his harem.

As I did some lawn work in the morning, I spotted 4 large V-shaped skeins of Double-crested Cormorants heading in a northerly direction, 87 birds in all.

Late in the morning we drove across Worcester County to the Colbourne area of Nassawango Creek.  We had 5 Pine Warblers, 3 Yellow-rumped Warblers, at least 8 Yellow-throated Warblers, all in full song, along with a singler Louisiana Waterthrush.

Meandering back across county, Fran pointed out a gathering of birds in a medium-sized vernal pond at the northwest corner of the intersection of Rt. 113 and Five Mile Run Road.  A quick U-turn and we were watching Glossy Ibis falling into the pond.  From every viewing point we counted more birds, with a final total of 76 in the batch.  The birds were feeding voraciously, as if they had just completed a long leg of their northward migration.  We tried and tried to turn one of them into a White-faced Ibis, but, alas, with no luck on that front.

The ibis were sharing the pond with at least three Greater Yellowlegs and a pair of Wood Ducks.

We saw another Wild Turkey from Rt. 113 just north of the above-mentioned pond to finish off the best of the birds seen yesterday.

We had 38 yard species yestereday, all the usual suspects for this time of year.  Tree Swallows have FINALLY returned to the ponds in our neighborhood.

Happy Easter to all on this soggy Sunday morning!

Norm Saunders

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