Hi Everybody,

Another weekend of arising early and doing roadside surveys for birds. On Saturday I did 30 three-minute stops on two miniroutes in the Denton CE block (southeast of Greensboro and east of Denton) and the Burrsville SW block (east of Denton) with nine stops in Delaware and two on the state line. On Sunday Nancy was the counter and I the recorder on the 50 stops of the Elkton Breeding Bird Survey route that runs from the end of Oldfield Rd on Elk Neck to Warwick just west of Middletown, Delaware. 

Saturday's routes were surprisingly different, considering that the blocks are diagonal to each other along Knife Box Road. The Denton CE route featured lots of birds of agricultural lands, and the Burrsville SW block had more woodlots and fewer field birds. I was impressed by the number of NORTHERN BOBWHITES in the Denton block. I had bobwhite at 10 out of 15 stops, and most stops had more than one calling back-and-forth. Wow. On Garland Rd, between Knife Box and Kibler Rds, I had four singing DICKCISSELS including two at stop four of my route. On Kibler and Knife Box Rds and Whites Lane I had three separate singing VESPER SPARROWS. The Denton block also had lots of Blue Grosbeaks, Horned Larks and Grasshopper Sparrows. 

In the Burrsville block I had four warbler species, including a Kentucky on a stream crossing, four Ovenbird stops, two Pine Warbler stops, Acadian Flycatchers, and five woodpecker species (two unfortunately between stops). At my last stop, on Wilhelm Rd south of Burrsville (the town is on MD-317) in pine-oak woods, I had Ovenbird and two scolding SUMMER TANAGERS. After the three minutes of counting ended a Pileated Woodpecker drummed, and after a bit longer (I was tallying results) the unmistakeable boiling teakettle whistle of a BROAD-WINGED HAWK sounded. From then onward the bird called at intervals, peeved with my presence. I eventually found a used Broad-wing nest in the main trunk crotch of a black oak 20 feet up. It seems the tanagers had found the hawk during my count, but the hawk stayed silent until it was obvious I wasn't moving along. It's nice to have some luck once in awhile. 

Nancy and I had 67 species on the BBS in Cecil County, plus four more between stops. The most surprising birds we found were on a pond between stops 23 and 24 on Williams Road not far east of the Brantwood Golf course (on MD-213). The pond held a GLOSSY IBIS, two early migrant LEAST SANDPIPERS, and a summering drake CANVASBACK. The pond is on the north side of the road not far east of Brookview Loop. Other nice birds were a singing SAVANNAH SPARROW in a horse pasture at stop 43 near the intersection of St. Augustine and Old Telegraph roads near Bohemia Mills, and a singing VESPER SPARROW in a soybean field about a mile north of Warwick on Old Telegraph Rd. Nancy also noted a flying CATTLE EGRET on Old Telegraph Rd north of Bohemia Mills. It was frustrating to note that several of the Grasshopper Sparrows we recorded were in fields slated for sub-division or already with houses a-building. Sigh.

Good atlasing & 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"