Hi Everybody,

Nancy and I took some birding sidetrips on our way to a couple of errands in Chestertown this morning (29 Sept). At our first stop at Great Oak Pond we found an adult male PEREGRINE FALCON sitting out in the harvested soy fields. We eventually saw the tiercel make a hunting pass over the pond. He singled out an Am. Crow as his target, but the crow proved too agile and aggressive for the smaller male falcon, and the Peregrine finally broke off the chase. Also present at Great Oak was a heron I had seen yesterday in afternoon driving rain.

The heron had appeared to be a Snowy Egret yesterday because of an all black bill, but it behaved strangely, staying in the soy beans with a Canada Goose flock rather than haunting the shore of the pond like a respectable SNEG. Today we were able to get an extended viewing of the heron, and it turned out to be a juvenile CATTLE EGRET. I dimly remember having seen a few black-billed young Cattle Egrets, but there are precious few references that say that Cattle Egrets can have black tarsi/toes and a black bill. Once again the full-sized Sibley proved its considerable worth and thoroughness by being the only major guide that illustrated such a bird. The Birds of North America account does note that young Cattle Egrets temporarily have a black bill, but equivocates about the duration of the condition post-fledging. Something to think about. Other Cattle Egrets today had the usual straw yellow bills and included just one with the sheep on Reese's Corner road (can't say where any others might have been), and three at John Hanson Road Pd.

Other birds at Great Oak Pd were 9 Ruddy Ducks, 2 Ring-necked Ducks, a Dunlin, 30 Killdeer, a Pectoral Sandpiper, 9 Least Sandpipers, both yellowlegs, a Great Egret, a juvenile Cooper's Hawk, and a CACKLING GOOSE.

Other birds at John Hanson Rd included 21 Ruddy Ducks, 4 Blue-winged Teal, 8 Northern Pintail, a Ring-necked Duck, 3 juvenile BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS, 24 Caspian Terns and a large uncounted number of Northern Shovelers, most in eclipse plumage. I didn't have time to carefully search for Cackling Geese among the 1500+ Canadas.

On our way home we saw a flock of 150 Snow Geese on Flatland Rd, our first good sized flock of the autumn.

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")