What a difference a few days make.  Birds seen today at Irish Grove 
by Dotty Mumford, Sue Hamilton and me include:

Double-crested Cormorant - 16
Great Blue Heron - 2
Great Egret - 9
Snowy Egret -11
Turkey Vulture - 4
Canada Goose - 2
Am. Black Duck - 4
Mallard - 2
Surf Scoter - 24
Black Scoter - 1
Osprey - 2
Bald Eagle - 1
No Harrier - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
No Bobwhite - 2
Clapper Rail - 8
Virginia Rail - 4
Greater Yellowlegs - 16
Lesser Yellowlegs - 4
Laughing Gull -14
Ring-billed Gull - 1
Herring Gull - 1
Great Black-backed Gull - 1
Forster's Tern - 5
Mourning Dove - 4
Great Horned Owl - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Hairy Woodpecker - 1
Yellow-shafted Flicker - 3
Pileated Woodpecker - 1
American Crow - 4
Fish Crow - 5
Tree Swallow - 12
Carolina Chickadee - 4
Brown-headed Nuthatch - 5
Carolina Wren - 6
Winter Wren - 1 (getting late for this one)
Marsh Wren - 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 7
Eastern Bluebird - 2 (took over a box from a pair of tree swallows 
since Saturday)
American Robin - 2
Brown Thrasher - 1
European Starling - 2 (!!! - don't usually see these here)
Myrtle Warbler - 18
Pine Warbler - 12
Common Yellowthroat - 1
Eastern Towhee - 2
Chipping Sparrow - 2
Savannah Sparrow - 1 (also getting late)
Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow - 1
Song Sparrow - 2
White-throated Sparrow - 3
Northern Cardinal - 5
Red-winged Blackbird - 12 (not on territory here yet, but they are in 
MI, WI, and MN)
Eastern Meadowlark - 7
Boat-tailed Grackle - 2
Brown-headed Cowbird - 2
American Goldfinch -1

We met with 3 DNR biologists who advised us how to enhance the 
property for woodcocks.  There were woodcocks present from 1967, when 
we acquired the property, until 2004.  The plan involves increasing 
shrub habitat around the edges of the fields.  This should also be 
good for prairie warbler, chat and yellow warbler.  Perhaps we will 
even get mockingbirds back. There was a pretty good chorus of 
pickeral frogs, despite the extraordinary dryness and low water.

Dotty will be staying there through Sunday, if anyone wants to tour 
the sanctuary.

Paul Bystrak

3709 Devonshire Drive
Salisbury, MD 21804
410-572-9950
443-783-1268 (cell)