Hi All,

After a couple of modest, but nice, migrant days on May Day and 2 May 
featuring the arrival of our local Yellow-breasted Chats and 
Yellow-billed Cuckoos (finally chowing-down on the abundant eastern tent 
caterpillars), and a Nashville Warbler on the second, the dam finally 
burst this morning (3 May) and there were migrants everywhere in the 
moist warm hazy weather. We were doing our part on litter pickup on a 
couple of local roads as part of our neighborhood association's 
Adopt-a-Road program, so we got up early, acquired our bright orange 
vests and gloves and got another lesson in the less savory aspects of 
human behavior (it's amazing what people throw away and where they throw 
it).

We had 14 warbler species this morning including 2 Black-throated Blues, 
a Northern Waterthrush, a Blackburnian, a Black-throated Green, a 
BLUE-WINGED (our fourth here this spring, good for our patch), and a 
Yellow (uncommon locally). We also had a northbound flock of BOBOLINKS 
with the males giving a Robert O' Lincoln bluegrass concert as they flew 
over, Scarlet Tanager, Acadian Flycatcher, 2 Orchard Orioles, and a late 
one-year-old male PURPLE FINCH at a feeder on Kinglet Road (yes, part of 
the neighborhood has bird-named roads) who gave a few snatches of song 
when he wasn't eating sunflower seeds. Although the migrants have gotten 
quieter as the day has warmed, folks should consider taking a bird walk 
this afternoon; there are migrants almost everywhere it appears.

Good birding,

Walter Ellison & Nancy Martin

23460 Clarissa Rd
Chestertown, MD 21620

phone: 410-778-9568

e-mail: rossgull(AT)baybroadband.net

Observing Nature is like unwrapping a big pile of presents every time you take a walk.