Greetings,

Last Friday, May 4, I spent the hours from 0330 until 1300 birding the area 
between Swan Harbor in Haford County to Elk Neck in Cecil County. The 
highlight was getting 106 species in just over nine hours of birding. 

Individual notes included three Am. Bitterns and one Sora at Swan Harbor, at 
least one (possibly two) Chuck-wills-widow at Elk Neck, scores of whips there 
also, ZERO screech owl, Pied-billed Grebe, Great Egret and seven shorebird 
species at Swan Harbor including two (what I believe were) Semipalmated 
Sandpipers (definately non-Least peeps sp.), Warbler numbers were low at 
Susq. State Park but I did have two Ceruleans, Warbling Vireos were 
everywhere, Orioles were back in numbers as were Scarlet Tanagers -they 
were seen at Susq. State Park, Perryville Comm. Park, and Elk Neck State 
Forest, Green Heron and Little Blue Heron were found at North East Town Park, 
there were two Am. Coots fighting at the Perryville Town Park, and the 
surprise of the day was a pair of seemingly healthy Bufflehead (1M,1F) at my 
house on Hances Point, south of North East, in Cecil County. The only record 
of Bufflehead I have in the yard was in May three years ago, when I had one 
male in the tidal basin for a week with a broken wing. (I presume that it died, 
as it could not fly and was extremely anxious).

The next morning I spent an hour at the Elkneck State Forest and picked up 
several Warblers that I missed the day before includeing BTB, Pine,  and Worm-
eating.

Several Whit-throated Sparrows were also at the Elk Neck State Forest. 

Good Birding,
Chris Starling
North East, MD