This morning on Spring Rd.  I counted 53 Hooded Merg's.  An astonishing 
number for this area.  Hooded Merg's have been one of the harder waterfowl 
for me to see in Talbot Co.  They don't seem to be as numerous on the 
Eastern Shore as they are on the western shore.  Gadwall, Wigeon, and 
Green-winged Teal were also present.  A Merlin zoomed around the boatyard 
today.  It put on a fine show landing on a mast of a boat that was up on the 
hard.
Last evening (3/29) around sunset I observed the Red-necked Grebe again at 
Bachelor Point Boatyard in Oxford.

Jim Brighton
Oxford, Md.