Hi All,

Hope springs eternal during Spring Migration. We spent Sunday scratching out a tough 122 species in Kent County. 

In spite of a nor'easter to our south that passed out to sea (probably blocking many migrants), and a coolish and quite breezy morning, Bob Ringler, Peter Mann, Nancy Martin, Ian Ellison (the human periscope, employing our Subaru's sunroof) and I set off at 2:30 AM to seek as many bird species as we could find in a day in Kent County. The moonless, cool and windy conditions made morning nocturnal birding a chore. We had difficulty getting our single screech-owl and Virginia Rail and missed Great Horned Owl (sigh). After playing our tapes on Lover's Lane in Edesville, and at Eastern Neck NWR and netting just five species we headed east toward Millington and the dawn chorus.

Birds started to tune-up before dawn including blackbirds and Horned Larks in fields on Big Stone Road and thrushes and Ovenbirds in the woods along No. 10 School Road. One of the thrushes was our only VEERY of the day calling among the singing Wood Thrushes. Another good find was a WHIP-POOR-WILL that sang briefly in the oak-hickory woods. We turned around at the Delaware line and headed west on Walnut Tree Road which yielded up many new birds including a KENTUCKY WARBLER, Wild Turkey, Barred Owls, Pileated Woodpeckers, Yellow-breasted Chat, Acadian Flycatcher, and LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSH. Having four sets of eyes helped us spot Greater Yellowlegs and BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS as they flew over the forest. By 6:00 AM we had manged to find 57 bird species.

We broke into the open farm fields north of Millington and started to tally more grassland birds. At the Mill Pond north of Millington on MD-313 we found the summering SNOW GEESE we were looking for, and something totally unexpected - a Greenland GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE, one of the latest spring sightings on record for Maryland. We returned north on MD-313 and turned east toward Delaware at Massey. On the state line we checked a pond at the corner of Waecker Road and were rewarded with two hen HOODED MERGANSERS. Returning toward Massey we turned north on Black Bottom Road heading for Golts. The mix of woods, ponds, fields and grassy yards yielded Great Egret (briefly seen by Walter), another hen HOODED MERGANSER, Cooper's Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, Prothonotary Warbler, Spotted Sandpiper, and Yellow-throated Vireo among others. At 9:50 AM we reached the 90 species mark.

We now turned westward down the Sassafras valley. Birds were now coming harder - a Savannah Sparrow on Quinn Road, a rough-winged swallow on Turner's Creek, White-crowned Sparrow and Yellow Warbler at Sassafras Natural Resource Management Area. We had a small bonanza at Peter Mann and Nancy Everds' house at the mouth of Swantown Creek where we had Cedar Waxwing, House Wren, Least Sandpiper, and ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. However we missed Peter's White-breasted Nuthatch. At Worton we found Lesser Yellowlegs, and a PECTORAL SANDPIPER. At our place in Chesapeake Landing we recouped the nuthatch and added wood-pewee. We reached 100 species at 12:40 PM.

The rest of the day was spent trying to find where the next new birds might be. Many of them were at Eastern Neck NWR where we located 14 of our last 22 species including a singing SEASIDE SPARROW in the marsh-elder at the Narrows, Bonaparte's Gull, Caspian Tern, Least Tern, black duck, WILSON'S SNIPE, both scaup (at Bogle's Wharf), Yellow-throated Warbler, and Swamp Sparrow. We wrapped up the day in Chestertown checking out a pond on Radcliffe Creek that held our last two birds of the day Killdeer and Solitary Sandpiper. All of us were very tired, but reasonably pleased that we managed to tally so many species on a day almost totally lacking in migrants and with many summer residents lagging their usual arrivals. Wait till next year.

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"