Hi All,

I decided to check Great Oak Pond late this afternoon (5:30 to 6:40 PM). There were nine species of waterfowl and four shorebird species there. The highlight was a hen EURASIAN WIGEON. When I first spotted the wigeon it took a long look to accept she was a wigeon because of her dark plumage and dull blue-gray bill. In order: I noted that her bill was darker than most American Wigeons with an extensive dark nail and a dark ridge, her head appeared uniformly buffy brown with extensive gray brown streaking, darkest on the ear coverts and crown/nape, and her flanks were not as warm cinnamon brown as I expect in American Wigeon hens. Eventually she flew and showed off her gray axillars and the lack of a white bar in her upperwing coverts. Another nice find was five STILT SANDPIPERS hanging out in a fairly tight group. I last saw the avocet at Great Oak Pond on 27 September. In the trees at the junction of Handy Point and Great Oak Landing Roads, near where I park along the road, there were 10 Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warblers, a young male Blackburnian Warbler, two Blackpoll Warblers, and a young female Pine Warbler. 

Other birds present:
3000+ Canada Geese
 150    Green-winged Teal
  16    Northern Pintial
  40+ Mallards
    1 Am. Black Duck
  38 Northern Shovelers
   4 Blue-winged Teal
   3 Ruddy Ducks
   2 Killdeer
 10 Lesser Yelllowlegs
  6  Pectoral Sandpipers

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"