Last Saturday evening I headed down to the shore for a night of marsh 
birding. Since Black Rail was my primary target, I went first to a site in the state 
to our south where several were reported the previous weekend. I spent the 
best railing hours of the night there, then drove up to Elliott Island for the 
last two hours of darkness. No Black Rails were heard at either location, and 
only a few Clappers. It was breezier than I expected, which may have been a 
factor, but Virginia Rails were numerous and vocal all around. 

At dawn I drove through the town of Elliott, where a CHUCK-WILL'S WIDOW was 
singing. At the public landing a BLUE GROSBEAK sang, 6 BOAT-TAILED GRACKLES 
worked the marsh edge and 3 ROYAL TERNS flew over. A single BLACK SCOTER was 
swimming off to the west. As it got lighter I worked my way slowly up Elliott 
Island Road. This is a very pleasant, peaceful place to be alone on an early 
Sunday morning in June. There were dozens of SEASIDE SPARROWS throughout the marsh 
and one SALTMARSH SHARP-TAILED SPARROW near the boat ramp on Island Creek. 
WILLETS were conspicuous, and YELLOW WARBLERS and ORCHARD ORIOLES sang from the 
roadside trees. In the pines I found BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCHES at almost every 
stop. Rounding a bend in the road I flushed about 6 TV's from an object on the 
pavement. It was not carrion but a Painted Turtle, alive and apparently 
unharmed, which I released into a ditch.

On the way home I took some back roads to look for a few year and county 
birds previously reported on this list. The bridge at Brookview (Dorchester) had 
at least 2 pairs of CLIFF SWALLOW among the Barns. (It was here that I found a 
huge female Painted Turtle, under a guard rail, in the process of covering her 
clutch of eggs.) In Caroline County I located Walter Ellison's little 
triangle of DICKCISSEL heaven near Goldsboro. The constant sound of the singing birds 
was amazing, kind of like it was on Cap Stine Road a few years ago. There 
were more Blue Grosbeaks here, and GRASSHOPPER SPARROWS. My last stop was Danny 
Poet's spot on Ell Downes Road in Queen Anne's, where I had missed Dickcissel 
before. But this time, at least 3 were very active and close to the road. The 
final bird of the day was a distant calling BOBWHITE just south of Ell Downes.

It sure was hard to come back to civilization.

Joel Martin
Catonsville, MD