Hi Folks,

Elaine and I spent much of yesterday (Sat., 10/28) in Dorchester Co.,
driving there in pouring rain, and beginning our birding at Blackwater NWR
while it was still raining.  The best part of the visit there was running
into Harry Armistead and Levin Willey, whose scheduled bird walk had no
takers willing to brave the elements.  Following some good conversation at
the visitor's center, they let me know that there was an American Avocet out
on the Blackwater River visible from the wildlife drive (Levin had seen it
on other days), so we went to look for it, but were unsuccessful.
Nevertheless, our visit to the refuge produced the following birds of
interest:

Snow Goose--2 blue phase, flyovers
Va. Rail--3, one of which was seen walking along the marsh grass next to
wildlife drive
Sora--1
Greater Yellowlegs--15
Lesser Yellowlegs--10
Dunlin--15
YB Sapsucker--2 (adult male and an imm)
BH Nuthatch--3
Sedge Wren--1 calling (where the rails were)
Hermit Thrush--1
White-crowned Sparrow--3 at visitor's center

    Our purpose for going to Dorchester Co. was to look for Franklin's Gull
along Indiantown Rd.  We found a collection of several hundred Laughing
Gulls back from the road near the corner of Indiantown and Jones Thickett
Roads, so we pulled off and scoped.  After about three passes through the
flock, the gulls took to the air.  It wasn't long before we spotted a hawk
darting quickly through the flock, and taking high-speed dives on occasion.
It was a good sized hawk, heavily spotted with pointy wings -- a juvenile
Peregrine Falcon.  It wasn't long before the gull flock had dispersed, not
settling back down.  We then followed Indiantown Rd. to its end near the
Marshy Hope Creek bridge, and then returned, but the gulls never did return
to the ground.  As we departed the area via Jones Thickett Rd., we observed
two fresh dead juvenile Laughing Gulls in a field not far from road's edge,
and I wondered if perhaps the Peregrine had broken their necks in the air,
and then just left them.

    Back home, our "almost urban" yard has been hopping for the past five
days.  While we attributed much of October's slowness to the immature
Cooper's Hawk that lurks around our neighborhood, we can no longer blame
that bird, as it has been here almost daily for the past week, but the
activity has suddenly really picked up despite its presence.  So now we are
finally getting to enjoy some autumn migration which had until a few days
ago been painfully slow.  For instance, during Spring migration, we had 13
species of warbler come through our yard; this fall we've had 3, and now
most warblers have passed.  Anyway, some of the more interesting birds
coming through:

Wed., 10/25:  Our first BROWN CREEPER of the season dropped in and spent
some time on one of our pear trees--one of its favorite places last winter.
It put in another appearance on 10/27, allowing Elaine to approach within
about 5 feet before moving up the tree.  GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETs have been
here almost daily since 1 October, and have been very vocal (there must be 5
or 6 in the yard) the past few days, enjoying our plentiful evergreen trees.
Our first RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET of the season also arrived this day, with two
of them seen mostly around our pear trees the following day.  On Friday, we
had a Ruby-crown visit our SUET feeder (is this usual? It's a first for us),
and this has continued every day since.  Today (10/29) while we were
standing under a pear tree in our yard, a Ruby-crown flew into the tree, and
busily checked out many of the leaves.  I held up my hand, and this little
tyke approached to within 6 inches of my fingers, but wouldn't land on my
hand.  I've been close to these birds before, but never this close.  Also on
10/25 the HERMIT THRUSHes returned following a few days away, and they've
been devouring pokeberries every day since, with a maximum count of three
birds seen on 10/26.  Our last neat bird on Wed., 10/25 was our first ever
FIELD SPARROW, half way down the driveway.  This is year bird #102 (#109 for
all time) in our yard.

Thursday, 10/26 brought another BLUE-HEADED VIREO into the yard, seen many
times throughout the afternoon.  We had our first DARK-EYED JUNCO back on 8
October, but their presence had been sporadic since.  Well, on Thursday we
counted 35 of these birds in the yard, which means there were probably
others we didn't count.  They've been plentiful since.  On Friday, 10/27,
Elaine advised me that she was looking at some bird with a lot of yellow on
it when I called her on my way home from work.  Hmmm, yellow is good in the
avian world; I let my imagination go wild.  When I arrived home, I hardly
had to get out of the car--there on a small tree was a yellow bird, wagging
its tail.  This was our first ever (YELLOW) PALM WARBLER for the yard, #103
for the year and #110 for all time.  This bird had a very nice and complete
rusty crown.  We also had a YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER visit one of our suet
blocks on Friday, another yard first.  Finally, today (10/29) we had our
first of season CHIPPING SPARROWs, long long overdue.

    One end-note.  I had a message from Hans Holbrook this afternoon; it
seems that he and Matt Hafner found a MARTIN down near Assateague, and they
didn't think it was a Purple Martin.  This could be very exciting.  We'll
hope for some good news.

Stan Arnold
Glen Burnie