Hi All,

Most of our birding was incidental this weekend, although Nancy and I did put in some effort at Eastern Neck NWR yesterday morning (26 Sept). The rather hazy and windless conditions of the weekend seemed to deaden bird movement and activity.

On Saturday (25 Sept) our best find was a crowd of 36 grasshopper-snapping CATTLE EGRETS at the sheep farm at the west end of Reese's Corner road north of Rock Hall.

Yesterday at Eastern Neck was a tad slow but we managed to see another Red-breasted Nuthatch for the week (five total) and our first two LINCOLN'S SPARROWS of the season. The former was at the Duck Inn Trail parking area and the latter were at the edge of weedy fields along the road out to the Ingleside Picnic Area (slated to be closed for the season at the end of the month). 

I had to go to town to post some items and decided to check out the John Hanson Rd pond due to Bob Ringler's comments from his Saturday post to the list. The pond was in pretty good form with 30 Caspian Terns and ten waterfowl species including 155 Northern Shovelers, 15 Green-winged Teal, 4 Northern Pintail, 2 Ring-necked Ducks, and 6 Ruddy Ducks. Among the 1300 Canada Geese present were 6 CACKLING (Richardson's) GEESE, so Bob was right to suspect their presence on Saturday. There were also 2 "Blue" Snow Geese among the Canadas. I have discovered yet another reason to criticize the AOU Committee on Classification and Nomenclature for choosing the name Cackling Goose for the newly split small "Canada" geese - it renders obsolete the four-letter-code "CAGO" for Canada Goose. I presume from here on out we should use "CANG" for Canada and "CACG" for Cackling.

Good Birding,

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")