Jane Kostenko and I were early among the masses assembled to wait for the appearance of the TROPICAL KINGBIRD along Reading Ferry Road. We arrived at about 8:20 am. Paul O'Brien had been there already since around 8 though David Bridge had been there since about 7. As people arrived we alternately grouped to chat or fanned out in search of the bird. When the bird was located, I was about 2/10 mile south of Adler's Rest Lane and the house where the bird was found. Jane yelled to me and I ran full tilt to get back to the group. When I arrived, I quickly viewed the bird to make sure I had seen it then grabbed our video camera and began filming. I got about 20-30 seconds of decent video though you can hear me breathing hard on the tape.

 

Later, we ran into Marshall Iliff while in search of the Eurasian Collared Doves along Hooper's Island Road near Blackwater NWR. He asked about the kingbird and it wasn't until then that we realized that we hadn't actually looked at the bird at all! In my haste to get back to the group, I just made sure I had a sighting then started trying to get some photo documentation. Jane, in her anxiety for me to get back to see if, spent her time trying to keep the scope on the bird pending my arrival, plus was engaging the house owner's college-age nephew in a crash course on birding and scoping. Jane and I have both seen Couch's and Tropical Kingbirds in Texas so perhaps not having to worry about getting a life look took away some pressure to study the bird, especially since Jim Stasz was rumored to have audio of the bird doing its pip-pip-pip call. But, the lesson to be learned here is to take advantage of the time you have with a bird and actually look at it with a critical eye. However, in this case, there was a tradeoff between getting photo documentation of a first state record versus studying a bird that we have seen in its native habitat (actually, when we were in McAllen, TX a few years ago, we found a TRKI nest on the edge of the rental car lot!).

 

Aside from that, after Marshall left (we were at the wrong 2546 address, Hooper's Island Road makes a hard right though the addresses continue when Old House Point Road goes straight), we went to the real 2546 HIR. As we scanned the trees and phone lines, we heard a very strange parrot-like noise. Our immediate reaction was "What the heck is that?!" We've seen lots of EUCDs in Florida but neither of us had heard this vocalization before. Anyway, it was the pair of EURASIAN COLLARED DOVES. They came in and landed in the trees between 2542 and 2546. Jane got some video and I got some digiscoped pix.

 

On the way back to Cambridge, we stopped along Route 335 just barely north of Hip Roof Road and watched an AMERICAN BITTERN feeding along the road edge. Jane got some really cool video of it moving its body while its head remained motionless. Must have some sort of gyroscope built in.

 

Then, along Egypt Road exactly one mile south of the school near Route 16, we saw two TREE SWALLOWS.

 

In all, an excellent day of Maryland birding!

 

Tyler Bell

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California, MD