I spent April 24 and 25 birding the lower Eastern Shore mainly for 
warblers and all-county "close-outs." Most enjoyably, I birded Monday 
evening and Tuesday morning along the Nassawango River in Wicomico and 
Worcester Counties. It was a wonderful treasure-trove of warblers (14 
species). Just the sounds were worth it, with three or more species 
singing at once much of the time, but I also got good looks at most of 
them. The route I usually follow is from Twilley's Bridge Rd on the 
east end of the Salisbury Airport, south on Wango Rd, east on Bear 
Swamp Rd, and south on Colbourne Mill Rd (which is what it is called 
on the map but is signed as Sturges Rd on the south end - signs are 
scarce, correct or not). This has a great deal of beautiful cypress 
swamp country and you have the roads almost entirely to yourself - 
maybe one passing vehicle every half-hour. I highly recommend it.

The warblers with very rough estimates of numbers were:

Northern Parula - 2 (surprisingly few!)
Yellow Warbler - 1 (ditto)
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 5
Yellow-throated Warbler - 30
Pine Warbler - 20
Prairie Warbler - 20
Palm Warbler - 1 yellow
Black-and-white Warbler - 10
American Redstart - 10 mainly Colbourne Mill
Prothonotary Warbler - 25
Worm-eating Warbler - 10 (several seen as well as heard)
Ovenbird - 20
Louisiana Waterthrush - 10
Common Yellowthroat - 10

Other treats were Great Crested Flycatcher, Orchard Oriole, one 
Yellow-billed Cuckoo, 2 Barred Owls having a hootenanny (one seen), 
and a Blue Grosbeak singing on a tree-top by the airport.

I also went to Deal Island (Somerset Co) which was mainly notable for 
many singing seaside Sparrows. There were lots of Great Egrets, a few 
Snowies, 3 Tri-colors, no Little blues. Shorebirds and waterfowl were 
very scarce.

On the county-listing front:
On my third passage in the last few weeks, Tuesday I finally found 
myself a Louisiana Waterthrush for Dorchester County to close-out that 
species for all counties. It was in the northeast corner north of 
Galestown on the north end of Galestown-Newhart Mill Rd. I still 
managed to miss Common Loon in Caroline County, which I've been trying 
to get there for years. Maybe if I moved there...

Steve Sanford
Randallstown MD (Balto Co)
scartanATverizonDOTnet