John,
Sounds like you had a perfectly splendid morning
                  --  the early bird does get the early birds.

If memory serves me right, the crossing on Old Wye Mills Road is actually an
MOS Sanctuary, a fine birding spot I'd not visited in several years.
Thanks for reminding me.   Used to be good place for Kentucky warblers, too.

Leo Weigant



On 4/28/07 9:07 PM, "John Hubbell" <> wrote:

> I had an excellent morning in Talbot County, picking up 13 county birds and
> numerous year birds.  I started at 5:30 am at Pickering Creek.  The dawn
> chorus included first-of-year birds such as Wood Thrush, Common
> Yellowthroat, and Grasshopper Sparrow.  Within half an hour, I had also heard
> Great Horned Owl, Barred Owl, Chuck-will's-widow, Sora, and a pumping
> American Bittern.  This was the first time I had ever heard a bittern, and it
> performed regularly until I left shortly before 8 am.  New arrivals during my
> walk through the trails included Yellow-billed Cuckoo, White-eyed Vireo, Blue-
> winged Warbler, Ovenbird, Yellow Warbler, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and Blue
> Grosbeak.  Swamp Sparrows were everywhere.  The ponds had 6 Blue-winged
> Teal, 4 Green-winged Teal, 1 Lesser Scaup, 1 Northern Shoveler, 4 American
> Coot, and 1 Common Moorhen.
> 
> Based on a tip from Jim Brighton, my next stop was the first stream crossing
> south of Rt 404 on Rt 662 (Old Wye Mills Rd according to Delorme), where I
> saw 2 Louisiana Waterthushes, 2 Black-and-white Warblers, and a Blue-head
> Vireo.
> 
> Next I headed for the pond at the corner of Coveys Landing Rd and Lewiston
> Rd.  I didn't find plovers of any kind, but the Ruff was again present.  Other
> shorebirds were mostly yellowlegs, but there were a few Pectorals and
> Solitary's and 1 each of Dunlin, Least Sandpiper, and Wilson's Snipe.  In the
> same area, a Merlin was perched by the closest house, and 2 American Pipits
> flew into the fields with the Horned Larks.
> 
> Last stop in Talbot was Coveys Landing on Tuckahoe Creek.  New birds here
> were 1 Prothonotary Warbler, 2 Orchard Orioles, 2 Eastern Kingbirds, 2
> Forsters Tern, 2 Northern Parulas, 1 Palm Warbler (yellow), and a Yellow-
> throated Vireo.
> 
> John Hubbell
> Washington DC