Hi Folks,

Elaine and I greatly enjoyed the Smith Island trip on Saturday; kudos to the 
organizers Kevin Graff and Pete Webb.  Kevin has already reported on the 
birds seen; I'd like to report on yard birds for Friday, 4/11 and some St. 
Mary's County birds on 4/12 and 4/13.

In our Ferndale (AA Co.) yard on Friday, Elaine had tallied an incredible 47 
CHIPPING SPARROWs under the feeders at one time, far exceeding our previous 
high of a dozen.  When I got home from work in the mid afternoon, I counted 
23 of them on the front lawn, and who knows how many were in other parts of 
the yard.

It was quite apparent that Friday was THE day for raptors so far this 
season, as indicated by the impressive report from Fort Smallwood, and the 
reports coming from various yards and venues around the state.  Our yard was 
no exception.  To get three or four hawks in a day is pretty good for our 
suburban location, but Friday brought not only the usual Cooper's Hawk, but 
our third Kestrel of the year, a yard-high four Red-tails, our first of the 
season  BROAD-WINGED HAWK, wafting over the yard at treetop level, and our 
second sighting of NORTHERN HARRIER, which was a new yard bird (#120) just a 
week ago.  In addition we had our first of year TREE SWALLOW, HERMIT THRUSH, 
E. TOWHEE, and on Thursday we had had our first of year RUBY-CROWNED 
KINGLET.  Our pair of RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHes continue visiting our feeders. 
Our chickadees now have the usual seven eggs in their nest, and they should 
be hatching any day.

On Saturday morning (4/12) I was able spend the first 30 minutes of daylight 
in the yard, while preparing for our trip to Point Lookout.  This was a good 
time to be there, as I watched a yard-high 14 COMMON LOONs fly over heading 
north, along with a yard-high 12 HERRING GULLs, all of them juveniles, 
heading west to visit the landfills and dumpsters of eastern Maryland.  Once 
we got down to Point Lookout State Park (St. Mary's Co.) while waiting to 
board the boat to Smith Island, I saw a TRICOLORED HERON fly over, and 
enjoyed a breeding plumaged Horned Grebe near the boat.  After returning to 
Point Lookout from the island, Elaine and I birded the Fort Lincoln area 
with Pete Webb and several others, with our highlights being a (Yellow) PALM 
WARBLER and an early WHITE-EYED VIREO (though this is a full ten days later 
than the early date found in the Yellow Book).  After leaving the park, we 
found a BOAT-TAILED GRACKLE along Cornfield Harbor Dr.

Sunday morning (4/13) Elaine and I birded the Naval Air Station, which is 
not open to the public, but many birders on this listserve have access. 
Highlights for us were a singing LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSH near the visitors 
quarters, two YELLOW-THROATED WARBLERs, three BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCHes and a 
SAPSUCKER at Goose Creek Campground, a HOUSE WREN on Johnson Rd. near Kyle 
Rambo's office, two singing WHITE-EYED VIREOs near Shaw Rd., three Yellow 
PALM WARBLERs at various locations, and four flyover ROYAL TERNs near Goose 
Creek inlet.  Our eBird report of all of the birds seen follows:
>
> Location:     Patuxent River Naval Air Station
> Observation date:     4/13/08
> Number of species:     56
>
> Canada Goose     10
> Mallard     4
> Ring-necked Duck     1
> Bufflehead     6
> Common Loon     7
> Horned Grebe     6
> Double-crested Cormorant     6
> Great Blue Heron     2
> Great Egret     5
> Turkey Vulture     7
> Osprey     16
> Northern Harrier     1
> Red-shouldered Hawk     2
> Ring-billed Gull     1
> Herring Gull     1
> Royal Tern     4
> Rock Pigeon     3
> Mourning Dove     5
> Belted Kingfisher     1
> Red-bellied Woodpecker     5
> Yellow-bellied Sapsucker     1
> Downy Woodpecker     8
> Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)     1
> White-eyed Vireo     2
> Blue Jay     6
> American Crow     9
> Fish Crow     6
> crow sp.     15
> Barn Swallow     5
> Carolina Chickadee     4
> Tufted Titmouse     6
> Brown-headed Nuthatch     3
> Carolina Wren     16
> House Wren     1
> Blue-gray Gnatcatcher     5
> Eastern Bluebird     3
> American Robin     7
> Northern Mockingbird     10
> Brown Thrasher     8
> European Starling     88
> Cedar Waxwing     20
> Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)     4
> Yellow-throated Warbler     2
> Pine Warbler     13
> Palm Warbler (Yellow)     3
> Louisiana Waterthrush     1
> Eastern Towhee     14
> Chipping Sparrow     18
> Field Sparrow     6
> Song Sparrow     2
> White-throated Sparrow     45
> Northern Cardinal     31
> Red-winged Blackbird     5
> Common Grackle     57
> House Finch     9
> American Goldfinch     17
>

Hope everyone stays warm for the next few chilly evenings.  The forecast 
looks good for some very warm weather next weekend.

Stan Arnold
Ferndale (AA Co.)