Greetings,

This post is late, sorry.  On Thursday the 13th Tom Fry and I spent much of
the day chasing birds in middle Delaware (Snowy Owl-YES!). Around 3PM we
decided to head across the penninsula to look for the Barnacle Goose at
Pickering Creek in Talbot County. We arrived at 4PM and spent the next hour
and a half scanning the flock (on a private field next to the Audubon
center). We were unsuccesful in our search.  Light was poor and the flock
was partially hidden by the rolling contour of the land. However at times
we had an interesting bird in view of our scope. It at first apeared to be
a Northern Mockingbird but when it flew I saw virtualy no white on it's
wings and absolutley no white on its tail. It never really perched close
enough to get a good look at it but of the views we saw it appeared to have
a relativley dark thin mask. I am stopping short of calling this a Northern
Shrike because of the very poor light and the fact that it was 300 yards
away!  But if anyone is birding in this area over the next few weeks I
would pay close attention to the mockingbird/shrike-like birds.

Saturday I decided to have another try for the goose, so after an hour or
so drive, I arrived around dawn and found the flock on the ponds at the
Pickering creek Audubon Center.  Here I found no Barnacle Goose. i did
however find at least two Cackling Geese. Pintail, Green-winged Teal,
Mallard, and Black Ducks were also there!  The sparrow action was great.
Loads of Songs were around highlights for me though were Savanna & Swamp.
Before leaving the area around 11AM I headed down Sharp Road just to poke
around the place. Here I was delighted to find three warbler species; Pine,
Yellow-rumped and a yellow PALM.

Good Birding,
Chris Starling
North East, MD