Hi All,

Yesterday (22 April) morning we led our beginner's walk at Eastern Neck NWR. Our turnout was small, not surprising given the weather forecast, but we managed to find 44 species on a walk out Boxes Point Trail and around the Eastern Neck Lodge (Refuge HQ). There was a calling VIRGINIA RAIL in the marsh beyond the blind at the end of the new trail behind HQ. On Boxes Point trail we found one BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH briefly giving its "rubber ducky" call and doing its pine cone impressions near the end of the trail (next to the pond), we also had two Yellow-throated Warblers, two White-eyed Vireos, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, and a flock of 15 Cedar Waxwings. After the trip Nancy, Ian and I had two PRAIRIE WARBLERS along the road before the turn to Bogle's Wharf, our first Eastern Kingbird of the season, three rough-winged swallows, and a RED-THROATED LOON off Ingleside. At Eastern Neck Narrows there were three Red-breasted Mergansers, about 20 Forster's Terns, and a late Greater Scaup. Jim Green called yesterday to tell us that he had 6 LEAST TERNS at Bogle's Wharf (the place we did not go, of course),

On our way home we saw 10 Caspian Terns keeping company with some Ring-billed Gulls in Edesville and we noticed that the Chesapeake Farms Tour was open for the first time in over a year - so we took the tour. There were nine White-crowned Sparrows in the first hedgerow on the right, a hen Hooded Merganser on the first pond, two Greater Yellowlegs, two Eastern Kingbirds, and many swallows over the ponds, including our first Bank Swallows of the year. 

This morning (23 April) Peter Mann and I did a run around the Millington area on this misty, moisty morning. On the road down to the Foxhole on the Sassafras River we had a singing Grasshopper Sparrow in a wheat field, and a Yellow Warbler singing across the river in Cecil County. We then headed for Sassafras on MD-299. Just south of Sassafras we had a VESPER SPARROW singing along the road. At Sassafras we had the first of five Wood Thrushes for the day and a singing Louisiana Waterthrush. On Golts Caldwell Road we found a small flock of Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warblers with one Palm Warbler in tow (subspecies uncertain due to poor light that could not still its tail pumping), closer to Golts we had a singing YELLOW-THROATED VIREO. Just south of Golts on Black Botton Rd we had two singing Red-eyed Vireos, and a singing ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER. We walked into the ponds from the Millington Wildlife Management Area parking lot (designated for Blind #3) and had a calling Red-shouldered Hawk, White-eyed Vireos, Field Sparrows, (very) Common Yellowthroats, a singing Swamp Sparrow, a lone male SCARLET TANAGER, and a singing Black-and-white Warbler. We had two male Orchard Orioles having an earnest discussion at the corner of Maryland Line and Big Stone Roads. We wrapped up on Walnut Tree Road where we noted a flock of 8 BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS flying by with a DUNLIN in tow. Spring has definitely sprung.

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"