Hi Everybody,

Nancy and I have officially started the minroute and atlas season with 6 routes in the last week. This morning we also had a tour of Chesapeake Farms with manager Mark Conner in preparation for the MOS Conference in a week. There are some choice bits of habitat on the property (e.g. loblolly pine stands, mature hardwoods & maturing salvage cuts with thick understory) off the tour and Ricaud's Branch Rd that we will be able to get a look at next weekend. There was a singing Summer Tanager on the auto tour just beyond the big marsh with the Osprey nests. However the best bird came after Mr. Conner dropped us off at our car. At the end of the road into the main viewing pond (with the Chesapeake Farms sign) at the intersection with Ricaud's Branch Road Nancy stopped to look at a bird on the wire on Ricaud's Branch Rd. She said, "Walter you'd better have a look at his bird! It's got a yellow belly!"

The bird was a WESTERN KINGBIRD. It spent most of its time foraging in the fallow cornfield in the southwest of the intersection (towards Chesapeake Farm HQ). The bird preferred to sit on old cornstalks and metal pipes in the field. It fed bluebird or kestrel fashion by pouncing from a perch. At one point we watched it cast a chitin pellet. We wondered if this was the Fort McHenry bird last seen on 31 May. It has been speculated that the bird that spent December-early January 2002 at Eastern Neck NWR might have been the Fort McHenry bird as well, so maybe this bird already was already familiar with Kent County. Whatever the kingbird's origin it was a pleasure seeing it unexpectedly in June rather than the "usual" fall or early winter. I hope it stays until next week's Conference.

Good ZBirding (& Atlassing),

Walter Ellison

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")