Hi Everybody,

Saturday was a very pleasant January day for a bird outing, chilly but sunny in the morning and warming into the forties as the day wore on. We met folks at two locations: at the Dollar General in Chestertown and at the Eastern Neck Narrows at the north end of the refuge. The Spring St. vulture roost was well-attended at 8:00 in the morning with around 100 Turkey and 48 Black Vultures on site. We also had a family group of Tundra Swans and a flock of Snow Geese fly over before we left for Rock Hall.

Eastern Neck NWR was not as fully stocked with waterfowl and songbirds as it was in mid-December, but there were more than enough of both to keep us busy on Saturday. It was a real pleasure to have 150 Tundra Swans for the day including many giving their powerful whooping calls (audible a long ways off) and shining-white groups flying by in bright sunlight. We also had a large raft of scaup of both species off the end of the Boxes Pt. Trail numbering at least 5000. Most of the scaup that we could identify were Greaters. We located a further twelve waterfowl species for the outing including 6 American Wigeon in Calfpasture Cove, 80 Canvasback, 20 Long-tailed Ducks, and 25 Red-breasted Mergansers. Among the ducks, geese and swans were two Horned Grebes and one Common Loon. There were also 7 Killdeer at the Narrows at low tide.

We had quite a few wintering songbirds for the day. These included Gray Catbird, Brown Thrasher, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Savannah Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, Eastern Towhee, and best of all, a young male COMMON YELLOWTHROAT. 

One surprise of the trip was the lack of waterfowl in Hail Creek at the south end of the island. Over the last several years this marshy creek has hosted a carpet of scaup, Canvasbacks, Ruddy Ducks and other fowl, but this winter it is almost devoid of ducks. The marshes around the creek are still attractive to Swamp Sparrows and we had a great Bald Eagle show there, but one wonders what happened to the underwater meadows that attracted ducks to this spot until last winter.

Our complete list appears below:
Snow Goose (seen away from the refuge); Canada Goose; Mute Swan; Tundra Swan; American Wigeon; American Black Duck; Mallard; Northern Pintail; Canvasback; Greater Scaup; Lesser Scaup; Long-tailed Duck; Bufflehead; Common Goldeneye; Red-breasted Merganser; Ruddy Duck; Common Loon; Horned Grebe; Great Blue Heron; Black Vulture; Turkey Vulture; Bald Eagle (13 adults, 2 immature); Northern Harrier (seen off-island); Red-tailed Hawk; American Kestrel (seen on E. Neck north of the island); Killdeer; Ring-billed Gull; Herring Gull; Great Black-backed Gull; Rock Pigeon (off-island); Mourning Dove; Owl (sp) - possible Barred Owl seen briefly; Red-bellied Woodpecker; Downy Woodpecker; Hairy Woodpecker; Northern (Yellow-shafted) Flicker; Blue Jay (off-island); American Crow; Carolina Chickadee; Tufted Titmouse; White-breasted Nuthatch; Carolina Wren; Ruby-crowned Kinglet (including one visiting the suet feeder at The Lodge); Eastern Bluebird; Gray Catbird (at Tubby Cove); Northern Mockingbird; Brown Thrasher; European Starling; Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler; Common Yellowthroat (Tubby Cove boardwalk - east end in reeds); Eastern Towhee; Savannah Sparrow; Fox Sparrow; Song Sparrow; Swamp Sparrow; White-throated Sparrow; Dark-eyed (Slate-colored) Junco; Northern Cardinal; Red-winged Blackbird; Common Grackle; House Finch; House Sparrow (off-island).

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"