Hi All,

Every day since last Saturday a few new birds have made their appearances here in Kent County. The avalanche of new birds has ovetaken my ability to report them it seems.

As with so many other observers from Maryland to Maine today Nancy and I noticed an influx of migrants this morning (5 May). Most of our efforts have been from our porch and on the short walk to son Ian's school bus stop at the corner of Elbon and Clarissa Roads here in Chesapeake Landing near Worton Creek. We had 11 warbler species today including our first local Yellow-breasted Chats, Blackpoll, Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, KENTUCKY, NASHVILLE, and our yard first (Ches. Landing second) MOURNING WARBLER. The Mourning Warbler passed through the brush surrounding the yard around 11:00 AM singing lustily (the "chee-chee-chee-chory" version), calling like a yellowthroat with a head cold, and giving one glimpse of his yellow chest, black throat and gray hood. 

Other weekly highlights were our first COMMON TERNS of the year at Eastern Neck last Saturday (29 April) along with three other tern species - 4 Least, 14 Forster's and 4 Caspian, and a PILEATED WOODPECKER well-up Church Creek in the loblollies (we were taking a newly-bought used canoe out for its first spin). On Sunday (30 April) we atlased in the Sassafras valley in southern Cecil County with Peter Mann. Highlights were Pied-billed Grebe, a female Red-breasted Nuthatch,  a Warbling Vireo and nest-building gnatcatchers at Grove Neck Sanctuary, and a PROTHONOTARY WARBLER singing in a red maple swamp in the Cheshaven neighborhood on Grove Neck. 

On 2 May I saw the ever later drake CANVASBACK on Great Oak Pond, also present were 8 Orchard Orioles (several must have been migrants, it was crowded and busy), a Blue Grosbeak, and a breezily singing WARBLING VIREO. On 3 May I went out birding with Peter Mann for awhile. We counted 18 nests in the Great Blue Heron rookery across from the Fox Hole fishing access, had an Indigo Bunting (our first of the season) near Sassafras, and had Peter's yard-first BLUE-WINGED WARBLER at Shorewod Estates. As others have noted Wood Thrushes and Ovenbirds were especially numerous and visible on the third. We still have at least one adult male Purple Finch coming to our feeders, he has a bad left eye; we wish him well. His condition appears to have improved a bit over the last few days.

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"