Hi Folks,

    Today was a totally stay-at-home day, working (and birding) in the yard
of our "almost urban" acre in the Ferndale section of Glen Burnie.  Being
recently married, high-priced gas, and a large yard have all conspired to
keep me at home a lot more than in the past.  Today has surpassed all other
days in total bird species seen, and in the number of "goodies."  By the
time darkness fell, Elaine and I had 34 species on the list, greatly
bettering our previous high of 28 species in a day during the Great Backyard
Bird Count this past February.  Today's tally also included two new yard
birds:  a pair of RUSTY BLACKBIRDs checking out our unmowed grass and a very
vocal BLUE-HEADED VIREO seen busily nabbing insects from beneath the leaves
of our towering Southern Red Oak trees.  The vireo hung around for a couple
hours in the early afternoon.  The most notable sightings, all seen today
(4/17) unless otherwise noted:

COMMON LOON--11 seen flying north in three different groups between 6:30 and
8:00 a.m.; all of them followed the same route at an altitude of several
hundred feet directly over our yard
GREAT EGRET--flying east low over the house; only the second I've seen in
the yard
COOPER'S HAWK--one seen circling over yard yesterday; fine adult sitting in
tree at edge of yard today; we've had a resident pair during most of winter
HERRING GULL--juvenile seen early a.m.; Ring-bills fly over every day, but
Herrings are pretty scarce
BLUE-HEADED VIREO
FISH CROW--one flying over in early morning, another in early evening
CAROLINA CHICKADEE--nestbox now has seven eggs--a new atlas confirm for the
Relay CE block. After building nests in three different boxes, they finally
layed their first egg on 5 April; they've been in constant battle with the
House Sparrows, which have attempted to build their nests over that of the
chickadees.  The chickadees are getting a lot of moral and other support
from the human residents of the property.  I wonder if the House Sparrows
could figure out why their nests in any of the boxes disappeared every other
day.  They finally gave up on the nest boxes and built their nests high in
our spruce trees
RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH--still hanging around, and beeping around the yard
much of the day, and seen visiting the suet feeder once
HERMIT THRUSH--seen on Friday, 4/7; an occasional visitor to the yard during
migration
AM. ROBIN--female seen continuously taking food to her nest in one of our
spruce trees yesterday, 4/16
YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER--first of the year seen yesterday; beautiful breeding
plumage; very vocal early this morning
DARK-EYED JUNCO--one seen yesterday (4/16); may be it for the season
RUSTY BLACKBIRD--the two previously mentioned

    Our yard year list now stands at 53 species, with the bulk of migration
(i.e. warblers) yet to come.

    One of the things we've been working on in our yard is a hummingbird &
butterfly garden.  So far, besides butterfly bushes, we've planted red
Columbine, Trumpet Vine, Catawba Rhododendron, and red varieties of Cannes,
Dhalia, and Gladiolus.  We've been unable to find Red Bee Balm, Wild
Bergamot, red Cardinal Flower, Coral Honeysuckle, Scarlet Sage, and Silk
Tree.  I've gleaned these plant names from some Osprey messages and other
sources.  None of the local nurseries seem to know much about them, and I'm
not sure if these plants all grow in our climate, or when they are generally
available.  We keep looking and asking, though.

Stan Arnold
Glen Burnie