This is a work weekend at Irish Grove.  Quite a few projects have been 
completed, but we also got to do some birding.  Below is a list of birds 
seen Friday night and all day Saturday on the sanctuary and along Rumbly 
Point Road, south of the sanctuary by all the observers present, which 
includes, besides those listed below, Stan and Elaine Arnold and Brent and 
Mary Byers.

Common Loon
Horned Grebe
Double-Crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Glossy Ibis
Turkey Vulture
Canada Goose
American Black Duck
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Green-winged Teal
Scaup sp.
Surf Scoter
Black Scoter
Bufflehead
Ruddy Duck
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Wild Turkey
YELLOW RAIL
Clapper Rail
Virginia Rail
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
WHIMBREL
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Royal Tern
Forster's Tern
Mourning Dove
Great Horned Owl
Pileated Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern (yellow-shafted) Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
Marsh Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Eastern Bluebird
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Yellow-rumped (myrtle) Warbler
Pine Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Seaside Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed (slate-colored) Junco
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Boat-tailed Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
American Goldfinch

The yellow rails were heard singing along Rumbly Point Road about 10 PM on 
Friday night.  Dotty Mumford, Marylee Ross and I were driving north on the 
road, stopping every so often to play rail recordings.  We were 
specifically listening for black rails, but had no luck on that one.  At 
the second stop, at the first (southernmost) hummock on the east side of 
the road, I had a few clapper rails respond, but no black rails.  Then I 
noticed the distinctive tapping pattern of a yellow rail.  I listened to it 
several times, before switching to that species on my MP3 player. Each time 
I played it, the bird responded.  I then checked with Dotty and Marylee, 
who had stayed in the truck due to the cold, to see if they had heard it. 
The bird was about 10 yards away, so they heard it clearly in the 
truck.  We stayed there until I couldn't stand the cold anymore, with the 
bird singing almost continuously, and occasionally joined by a second bird 
to the north, perhaps 30-40 yards away.  We made more stops on the way back 
north, but had nothing other than clapper and Virginia rails.  After we got 
to the house, Tom Feild arrived and he was all excited.  He had heard a 
yellow rail, as it turns out, at the same spot we heard it.  He also heard 
a whimbrel fly over. Unfortunately, the location is not on sanctuary 
property, so we can't add it to the sanctuary list, but it may be a new 
bird for the Somerset County list.  An attempt to locate them again on 
Saturday afternoon was unsuccessful despite the dark and dreary 
weather.  The rains today have probably made Rumbly Point Road very 
treacherous - be aware of this if you are thinking of listening for the 
rails.

Paul Bystrak

3709 Devonshire Drive
Salisbury, MD 21804
410-572-9950
443-783-1268 (cell)
 


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