Hi All,

George Jett was here yesterday (10 April) to speak to the Kent Bird 
Club. George and I did some birding in southwestern Kent County 
including visits to Great Oak Pond, Chesapeake Farms, and Eastern Neck 
Island. We located 79 bird species.

We started things off with a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher in our yard at 
Chesapeake Landing, our first of the spring. At Great Oak Pond there are 
still a fair number of Lesser Scaup, Ruddy Ducks and shovelers. We also 
had a large flock of gulls there including an impressive 230 Bonaparte's 
Gulls resting, bathing and flying about. Also present was a late 
Canvasback. On the lotus pond west of Fish Hatchery Road and south of 
Fairlee Creek there was a late TUNDRA SWAN, 10 Gadwall, 4 wigeon, 4 
shovelers, and some Green-winged Teal. At a pond at the north end of Elm 
Rd in Tolchester Beach there were 35 Green-winged Teal, 8 shovelers, and 
3 pintail.

The main pond near Chesapeake Farms HQ is now a mud flat due to annual 
draining for the summer. There were 34 Greater  and 2 Lesser Yellowlegs 
and 37 Green-winged Teal on the mud, and 12 White-crowned Sparrows on 
the grassy road shoulders south of the pond. On the tour road we had 13 
diving coot with three attending wigeon on the third impoundment, and 
several Wood Ducks around the big marsh.

At the Eastern Neck Narrows there were 28 Bonaparte's Gulls, 19 
Forster's Terns, 2 Greater Yellowlegs, and a Least Sandpiper. There are 
still a fair number of Bufflehead around the island and a flock of about 
24 Greater Scaup in Tubby Cove. On the Boxes Point Trail we had several 
Swamp Sparrows, a Hermit Thrush, four Pine Warblers, 2 YELLOW-THROATED 
WARBLERS foraging low (they eventually sang a bit and one did some 
flycatching), at least two BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCHES (heard only), and 4 
Horned Grebes, and 10 Common Loons on the Chester River seen from the 
end of the trail.

It was a nice day, but it would have been even nicer to have seen some 
of the gorgeous subtropical South Texas birds George showed us last 
night at his talk.

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"