Folks

On Saturday while waiting to help Mike Callahan unload his moving van at Mike's new house in Newburg,I had an assortment of passerines.  I wanted to start work on Mike's new yard list, so I birded a little before the truck arrived and after we unloaded.  Highlights at the house were Red-bellied, Downy, and Red-headed Woodpecker, Yellow-throated Vireo, Pine Warbler (singing), Northern Parula Warbler, several hatch year Chipping Sparrow, and a single male alternate plumage Summer Tanager.  This six acres could produce some nice birding.  Overhead was Bald Eagle, and both vulture species.

The van was going to be later then expected, (two hours) so before the van arrived I went down to the Breeze Point Sewage Treatment Plant on Cobb Neck. Highlights at Breeze Point was a single Snowy Egret which I flushed from the marsh area past the recycle center.  Other birds of note at this spot were two Green Heron, two Great Blue Heron, and 10 Great Egrets.  A single Osprey was perched on the microwave tower near the gate.  About 50 Laughing Gulls, four Mallards, and four Killdeer were the other birds found.

On my way back to Mike's I stopped at Morgantown to see what terns and gulls were present.  I found three Caspian, 10 Royal, and about 40 Forster's Terns.  Several Great Black-backed, 10 or so Herring, 9 Ring-billed, and 30+ Laughing Gulls were also present.  There was also an Osprey perched on a piling at Morgantown.

Today Gwen and I looked in vane for Buff-breasted Sandpipers at the turf farm on Rt. 231 north of Benedict.  We did fined about 50 Killdeer, and two Horned Lark.  The weather is too hot, and not much rain has fallen (0.1 inch this month) to dropped any shorebirds at this location.  We did have one non-killdeer fly up when a group of the Laughing Gulls flew, but could not get id on it.  It flew straight away and never returned.  This spot is worth checking regularly since it is along side the Patuxent River, and Kyle Rambo had two BBSA there on September 8 (while we were in Michigan).  Kyle's birds are likely the first county record for this grassland species.

George Jett
Waldorf, MD 20603

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