Greetings,

The Kent County Bird Club Owl Prowl last Saturday evening at Eastern Neck had modest success. Thirteen participants met at the Lodge near dusk for some background on owls and other night birds before heading out. The night was calm and cool. We first stopped at Tubby Cove, where a woodcock was performing its courtship flight. It was too dark to see the bird in the air and the opening where it was probably doing the ground-based "peent"-ing part of the display was out of earshot to the east, but most people could pick out the twittering of its wings as it rose in the air. Soon after, a screech-owl responded to our recording, flying into a roadside sassafras tree and vocalising softly. It tolerated our flashlights for a minute or two before departing back into the woods. The owl was a first-time sighting for many members of the group.

We then tried several other spots on the way out to Bogle's Wharf, but couldn't get a rise from any other screech-owls or Great Horned Owls. The Virginia Rails usually present near the corner may have thought it too cool to waste any effort responding to our recordings and imitations. At Bogle's, we could hear the calls of Ring-billed Gulls roosted on the Chester River and gentle lapping of waves on the shore. All-in-all, participants enjoyed their experience out and about in the dark of night.

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"