I did the May count yesterday (5-12) both onshore and out on the river, with 
101 species.  I went out yesterday morning with Greg Kearns and a boat full 
of birders on the Patuxent River, and we had a great time.  He is such a great 
Naturalist and a pleasure to be with in his element.  The river was just right 
for shorebirds (low tide), so we managed a few (6) species, with nothing rare 
but we had exceptional views at feeding peeps within 25-40 feet.  It was very 
helpful to have Least and Semi-p's right next to each other, to point out the 
difference between them.  It was a nice lesson for many of the birders on the 
trip.  It's always nice to get some shorebirds in PG County!  We had about 70 
species of birds on the boat from 7:15-10:15.  The rest of the day I looked 
around Jackson's Landing, Selby's Landing, and Mt. Calvert.  I did about 6 
hours on shore, and picked up many more species, for a daily total of 101.

The best find was at 6:10 AM in my front yard - a singing warbling vireo, a 
first for my yard.  I was elated!  They are pretty uncommon down here, not 
seen annually, and for whatever reason it took a long time for me to see one 
at our house.  It was seen and heard well by 4 others who were with me, and 
none had seen one before so it was much appreciated.

We had 15 warbler species, but overall numbers were very low in my opinion, 
with nothing very unusual.  The most unusual warbler observation was the 
almost total lack of Myrtles (yellow-rumps).  I had a lot of Blackpolls, Parulas, 
Yellows, Yellowthroats, and a normal amount of the less common species, but 
I did a lot of looking and only saw 2 Myrtles all day!

We had a beauty of a gobbler with about a 12 inch beard doing a full strut for 
a single hen, about 65 yards from us out in plain view in a field.  There were 
two other smaller gobblers also vying for attention, so the group was quite 
animated and it was great to see their behavior.

There were almost no waders.  Only one green heron, plus a usual number of 
Great blues.  And very few swallows, with only a few tree and barns around.

I almost missed blue grosbeak.  They are common (breeders) here, but I 
blanked on them all day, until I got home at 5:30 and one was singing on the 
wire out in front of the house.

I had summer tanager in 6 different areas, with 9 total.  This was my high for 
the species - they seemed to be everywhere here yesterday.  I had seven 
singing males and 2 females.

I had plenty of red-bellied woodpeckers, but very few of any others.  Only one 
flicker, and until I got home at 5:30 PM, nothing else!  I had two downies and 
two pileated when I got home.

I had a horned lark and two savannah sparrows in a field, which are both hard 
species to come by for here in May.  The horned lark may have been a 
breeder, they were confirmed there during the 2002-2006 Atlas.

I had no rails, owls, cuckoos, or caprimulgids.

This weekend I hit 150 species for my yard list!  This included two new 
species (first ever); the warbling vireo yesterday, and this morning I had a 
Lincoln's sparrow around for about two hours.  It never vocalized and was 
very shy, but spent a lot of time on the ground foraging.  It liked the garden, 
which I turned over this week, and the dirt may be full of bugs.  I've seen 
many birds in it the last couple days, including M. dove; Song and Chipping 
sparrows; Robin; Towhee; I. bunting, Cardinal; and Cowbird.

Cheers!!

Jeff Shenot
Croom MD