Hi All,

I ran out of Song Bird Shade Grown French Roast coffee recently so I 
journeyed down to Eastern Neck to buy some and while there I did some 
birding. Admittedly, it was hard to resist once I was there.

I birded the new Marsh Overlook Trail and the edges near the Lodge, the 
Bay View Butterfly Trail, Bogle's Wharf and The Narrows. I also stopped 
to scan the shallow pond east of the road at the bend in MD-445 
three-quarters of a mile north of the refuge. The GREAT WHITE HERON was 
in place at 5:00 PM. I saw it from the swan-viewing platform at The 
Narrows, a good spot to see the bird, admittedly at a considerable 
distance. I can also account for him/her all day during the Big Sit; I 
doubt she/he sneaks off to Calvert County for a break.

The pond north of the refuge had five shorebird species including an 
adult LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER, both yellowlegs, a Wilson's Snipe, and a 
Pectoral Sandpiper.

Other birds, among 49 other species, were nine sparrow species including 
Savannah and six young White-crowneds at the Bay View Butterfly trail 
head - the white-crowns were in the Butterfly Garden itself; 5 
woodpeckers including a female sapsucker near the Lodge; four latish 
Indigo Buntings (three near the Lodge); six phoebes; a Great Egret at 
the Marsh Overlook Trail; two Common Loons (one at Bogle's and one from 
the Marsh Overlook); and five Royal Terns.

Good birding,

Walter Ellison

23460 Clarissa Rd
Chestertown, MD 21620

phone: 410-778-9568

e-mail: rossgull(AT)baybroadband.net

"Nothing is as easy as you would like it to be, and nothing is as hard 
as you might fear"