Hi Everybody,

Nancy and I went to an open house at Echo Hill west of Betterton today and did a little birding around Still Pond and Still Pond Neck. We saw a garbage barge pass by out in the Bay with lots of gulls riding on the "cargo". Among the Great Black-backs and Herring Gulls were two adult LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS. Also seen were 5 Red-breasted Mergansers, 3 Caspian and 2 Foster's Terns. Among the landbirds on Still Pond Neck were Cooper's Hawk, House Wren, Gray Catbird, Orchard Oriole, White-eyed Vireo, Wood Thrush and a lone YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER singing in a loblolly pine about 3/4 of a mile north of the old Coast Guard Station on Still Pond Neck. We also had Great Crested Flycatcher and Grasshopper Sparrow on Still Pond Creek Rd. We later found a Barred Owl nest in a hollow black walnut. It was wet, but it was a gentle spring rain when it did fall, the dogwoods and redbuds were very pretty in the wet misty air of the day.

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")

"Are there *ever* enough birds?" - Connie Hagar as quoted by Edwin Way Teale in "Wandering through Winter"