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Subject:

May Count in Charles County - Long

From:

"George M. Jett"

Reply-To:

Maryland Birds & Birding

Date:

Wed, 12 May 2004 11:13:50 -0400

Folks

Sorry for the late posting but .... What follows is a summary of the May count results from Charles County, and a half hearted attempt to update the year and yard list for the Atlas fund raising project.  

Gwen and I did the May count (Saturday, May 8) in Charles County covering Allen's Fresh and Cobb Neck.  We started about 4 AM at the house.  We waited for Whips at the house, but it must have been too cold, and the Whips did not sing.  By 4:30 we headed to our territory.  I decided to try a different approach in our sector this year.  Normally we chase Chuck's on Cobb Neck early and quickly go back to Allen's Fresh working our way to Cobb Island.  This year we started on Cobb Neck about 5:20 AM and worked our way first south, then north looking for song birds.  I am short on the neotropical migrants for my big atlas fund raising year and thought this might help.  This also allowed us to timed our visit to Allen's Fresh for low tide.  Allen's Fresh is generally the best place in Charles County for shorebirds.  It was a long day and birds were busy early but soon shut down.  We finished with about 115 species, but the going was very tough.  We essentially had not ducks (well Mallard) and Canada Geese.  We also did poorly on herons with only Great Blue and Green being located, and no goatsuckers.  The only late sparrow we found was Savannah at Allen' Fresh.  The nesting birds are on territory but Song Sparrow proved to be tough to find.

On Cobb Neck we tallied seventeen species of warblers including two Northern Waterthrush (#192 maybe - I need to get the spreadsheet up to date.) for the county big year list.  We got all the nesting warblers except Kentucky.  My two stakeout birds were silent while we were near.  We did tally a few true (to Charles County) migrant warblers, including Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, Yellow-rumped (really?), and Blackpoll.  We picked up both tanagers along the way, and all the expected nesting flycatchers.  At Cobb Island Gwen quickly found two Common Loon, but no grebes were found all day.  The usual buntings were present, and two Rose-breasted Grosbeaks (RBGR) also put in an appearance.  With much searching in the right habitat, we were able to locate only two singing Northern Bobwhite.  What is going on with this species?  DNR, please do something.  

On our way back from Cobb Island we stopped at Morgantown for gulls and terns.  The highlight was the first year Lesser Black-backed Gull lounging with Greaters, Herring, Ring-billed, Laughing, and one Bonaparte's Gull on a sand spit at Lower Cedar Point (Morgantown to some).  We also had about 50 Royal Terns and a couple Forster's Terns in the area.  On Cobb Neck we counted at least 46 Osprey.  Quite an impressive number and more than the House Sparrows we counted.  Let's hear it for EPA who banned DDT.  Conservatively, we also added 6 Bald Eagles to the day list.  The only owl was a Barred in one of my atlas blocks.  The bird came out to visit about 9 AM in response to someone cooking for you.  

With the wind out of the north, the tide was lower then usual at Allen's Fresh, we were not disappointed.  There we picked up two Semipalmated Plover (#193) and Dunlin (#194) (Jim Stasz calls them Dublin's for some reason).  We also had a single basic plumaged Black-bellied Plover, 3 Greater Yellowlegs, 21 Lesser, 4 Spotted, 2 Semipalmated, and 34 Least Sandpipers.  Elsewhere we had seven Solitary Sandpipers and a single Killdeer.  A pretty good shorebird afternoon down here.  White still at Allen's Fresh, I headed to the car for a snack and noticed a raptor darting past.  A female Merlin quickly flew between Gwen and I.  I yelled but Gwen was scanning the marsh and missed the bird.  Bummer!  Note:  On May I had a single Pine Siskin (#188 county I think) fly by this same location, calling, while I was searching for shorebirds.  Also at Allen's Fresh, while waiting for a Marsh Wren to sing, a female Northern Harrier flew over the marsh being harassed by Red-winged Blackbirds.  A latish migrant.  I had not seen a harrier here in about two weeks.  

We had a third RBGR at the house while doing a feeder watch from 6:40 to 9 PM, hoping the Whips would sing.  In less then three hours time we totaled 30 species from the deck, but no Whips.  They sang about 4:30 AM the next day.

Yesterday and today about three Acadian Flycatchers (#107 for the yard) were calling around the house.  Monday morning we had Black-throated Blue (#105) and Chestnut-sided Warbler (#195 county/#106 yard) singing in the yard.  Sunday produced Eastern Wood-Pewee (#104 yard).  Swainson's Thrush have been singing around the house since May 7 (#191 county/#102 yard).  This AM I suckered one in close so I could study field marks.  Whit, whit, whit!

On May 6 the sole new county bird was a Black-throated Blue Warbler (#190 county) at the abandoned sewerage treatment plant at Bryan's Road.  At the house four new yard year birds arrived:  Yellow-throated Vireo, Bank Swallow, Eastern Kingbird, and Tennessee Warbler.  On May 5 I got my first Tennessee Warbler on Rt. 224 and Smith Point Rd.

Again, sorry for the late and long post.  Some of the numbers my not be spot-on, since I need to update the spreadsheet.  Last time I looked I had forgotten to put in Laughing Gull and Blue Grosbeak in for the yard year list.  

I think I am close to 200 species in the county but expected to be higher by now.  Where are the warblers?  

George