For many years, my annual quest was to better the then anemic record
arrival date for Blue-gray Gnatcatcher in Worcester County.  The best
date had been March 28 (records from 1976 and 1986).  I finally succeed
in 2003, with multiple birds on both March 26 and 27.  Nonetheless, I've
been thinking I could do better, and greatly enjoy that special time in
late-March when the first handful of truly summer birds return to our
shores (species like Eastern Phoebe winter, and even Tree Swallows do
some years).  With March 24th and 25th falling on a weekend, it
especially made a trip tempting.  Armed with a complete Worcester data
base printout for 3/20-31 I sent forth for the shore Friday after work.

I birded in Worcester all day on Saturday, 3/24, doing a sort of
"mini-day" trying to rack up a good species total and did just land
birding on the morning of the 25th.  Results as follows:

March 24:

I started at 4:40 am at Truitt's Landing.  Virginia Rails were calling
and I was able to induce a single King Rail to call with the help of the
tape recorder.  A single screech-owl stop on the way out was a
surprising miss.  I tried Scott's Landing, but it was windy and rather
cold.  I then hurried to Nassawango Creek at Nassawango Road where I
have had luck with Barred Owls on the atlas.  In their usual form, it
took a little over 15 minutes, but they finally responded in spades,
just as I was about to leave.  You just have to give them 20 minutes.
From 0649 to 1000 I birded various stops in the Pocomoke State Forest,
along Camp, Corner House, Fleming Mill, Old Beech, and Old Furnace
Roads.  The "dawn chorus" was severely lacking given the cold and wind,
but I managed to get most of the expected resident species (e.g., both
nuthatches, Pleated, sapsucker, phoebe, etc.), with only Winter Wren
being a bad miss.  The single target birds were a singing Louisiana
Waterthrush at Old Furnace Road and Pusey Branch (not remarkable, tying
the forth earliest date for Worcester) and a singing Yellow-throated
Warbler at Nassawango Creek and Old Furnace Road.  The latter was much
better, as the record date is just one day earlier (23 March 1982,
Worcester County, MD Arrival Date Table, MB 38:91), and it tied the
second best date (24 March 1994, Blades Road, 1, M. O'Brien, MLH
unpublished data) and was my personal best ever by two days.  Pine
Warbler count for the forest was 29.  It is amazing how common they seem
this time of year before their songs are buried by the other warblers.

I then birded some private farm ponds near Snow Hill, were I got my only
Savannah Sparrows of the day.  The Worcester landfill had a lot of gulls
(1 ad. Lesser Black-backed), but not any other quality birds (30
Laughing Gulls, 3 Ring-bills, 2500 Herring, 40 Great Black-backed, 1
black duck, 1 hooded merg, 1 red-breasted merg, 4 ruddies, 1 horned
grebe, 200 fish crows).  A spot at the Newark Pond (the little
wastewater pond on the west side of Rt. 113 just south of Newark) yield
a single Snow Goose, which was good in that I didn't need to try
elsewhere for this species.  I birded some more private land near Newark
and to the north, without any surprises, but my good White-crowned
Sparrow spot along Foreman Lane had been cleaned up a bit and no
sparrows were to be found.  The only Wilson's Snipe of the day was along
a pond near Berlin.

I then rolled into OC.  Skimmer Island only shorebirds were
oystercatchers, but I did get my only Great Egret of the day over the
heron colony area on the island and another Lesser Black-backed.  The
Inlet produced the usual suspects, with many gannets, a single Great
Cormorant feeding in the inlet being the best bird.  The West OC Pond
had a good variety of waterfowl, including the only pintail and
Canvasbacks of the day.  I also check the Riggins Ridge Road pond (great
minds think alike?) but didn't see any bitterns.  Sometimes this pond
holds an early Little Blue Heron or Snowy Egret ... species I missed (as
well as Tricolored Heron).

I was feeling like the species total was going to be pretty lame (my
mental target had gone from 120 to 100), but things picked up at the
shorebird flats near buoy #11.  Species here included 50 Black-bellied
Plovers, 1 Killdeer (my first of the day), 1 Piping Plover, 30
oystercatchers, 1 Sanderling, and 1500 Dunlin.

I then stopped by my place along 611 to turn the heat on (had stayed in
Pocomoke City Friday night), and the main pond, which had held a little
flock of Redheads during the end of February still had a pair of these
ducks, my only ones of the day.  They were also the only species I found
for which there were no prior data base records during 20-31 March.  I
finished the day on Assateague, and was able to add catbird (perhaps the
most satisfying bird of the day) at Bayside at dusk, and get the
woodcock show in the campground also.  With 109 species (and still
needing screech-owl) I hit a number of spots along Mary Rd, and finally
got one to call and ended with 110 species.  Not bad considering the
date and weather.  I once had 134 or so on March 31 with Stasz and
Iliff, but a week this time of year makes a big difference and I hadn't
done any scouting.  Nonetheless, I had a great time, although it was
exhausting.

March 24th

I just birded in the Pocomoke State Forest.  Of course, I heard multiple
Winter Wrens, and had a single Louisiana Waterthrush at Whitesburg Road
and Pusey Branch, but no more Yellow-throated Warblers   The gnatcatcher
will have to wait till next year.

Good Birding,
Mark Hoffman
Sykesville, MD