I just completed a re-design and upgrade of the Cecil Bird Club website.  The address remains the same, www.udel.edu/cecilbirds. The new design includes all the features of the old website, but with a bold, clean, new look.  The centerpiece of the website is a stunning head and shoulders portrait of an American Kestrel, donated by George Jett.  The color scheme of the new website was chosen to complement the colors of the bird.  Thank you, George, for the use of the photo and the inspiration to re-design the website.

I also took the opportunity to update the Cecil County Checklist and to provide it through the website as a downloadable pdf for printing by the user.  The last previous update had been in 2003.  I combed through the records of the MD/DC Records Committee for recent sightings, resulting in addition of 10 species.  The full checklist is a four-fold brochure that includes seasonal abundance codes.

In addition, I added a new, one-page Field Checklist, which has no seasonal abundance codes but does contain space to write numbers of birds seen, for use in the field.  It's formatted to one letter-sized sheet, for use on a clipboard.

Another website upgrade is that all of the available Turkey Point Hawk Watch data are now available as pdf files, one file per year.  And there is a new, comparative chart that shows all the year-end totals on one sheet.  (We currently do not have data for years 1996, 1997, and 1998. If anyone out there has spreadsheets covering those years, please send them to me.)

The website includes site descriptions for 11 birding spots in Cecil County.  There are another 10 to be written and I plan to work on these as time allows. Researching the details and writing them takes some time.  I hope to have this part completed by the end of the year.

Please log-on to www.udel.edu/cecilbirds and take a peek.  I hope everyone enjoys the new look.  

Marcia

Marcia Watson
Elkton, Maryland

Cecil Bird Club
Maryland Ornithological Society
www.udel.edu/cecilbirds