Hi Folks,

On Saturday (5/17) Bill Hubick, Tom Feild and I decided to forego a shot at 
the Ft. Smallwood Miss. Kites, and have some raw adventure on the Tuckahoe 
River, with the purpose of county listing in Queen Annes, Caroline, and 
Talbot Counties.  We put our kayaks in at Crouse Mill Rd. in Tuckahoe State 
Park and eleven hours later took out at Mathewstown Rd. (Rte 328) in Talbot 
Co., having pretty much accomplished what we set out to do.  The upper 
Tuckahoe between Crouse Mill and the town of Hillsboro was high, and had 
plenty of fallen trees, and lots of poison ivy, but kind providence allowed 
us to maneuver around all of these annoyances, and we never had to portage 
once, though we did have to backtrack a few times.  We had a much different 
situation between Hillsboro and the end, where the river is wide open, even 
lake-like at one point.  Here we discovered that the lower Tuckahoe is 
indeed tidal, and we were bucking the tide, but worse were the headwinds of 
20 mph or more, and the last three hours of our journey was exhausting.

But we had a lot of birds, the highlights being warblers, mostly breeders, 
but migrants included CHESTNUT-SIDED, NASHVILLE, BLACKPOLL (Tom only), and 
quite a few NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH.  A singing VEERY in Caroline was our only 
Catharus thrush of the day, and other birds of interest were YELLOW-THROATED 
VIREO in all three counties, LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSH in Queen Anne's and 
Caroline, and YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER  in two different locations in 
Caroline--possibly new locations for this species.  Our only rail of the day 
was a spontaneously calling KING RAIL in the spatterdock and arrow arum 
south of Covey's Landing in Talbot Co., and our only owl was a spontaneously 
calling BARRED OWL along the upper Tuckahoe in QA Co.

After our extensive workout on the water, we drove back north along the 
Caroline side of the river, stopping at Stoney Point Rd., with the purpose 
of looking for nighthawks along the river at dusk.  We were not disappointed 
when eagle-eye Hubick spotted a COMMON NIGHTHAWK flying distantly over 
Talbot Co., and we all watched the bird with anticipation as it came towards 
us, and then finally crossed the river into Caroline for the double-tick.

While Bill took meticulous notes for several locations in all three 
counties, I am lumping together the river highlights and numbers for each 
county.  The sum of all the numbers exceed the actual number of birds seen, 
since many birds were seen in two counties.


    Colby Rd., Talbot Co., while positioning vehicles:

N. Harrier--1
Horned Lark--3
Savannah Sparrow--2
E. Meadowlark--2

    Covey's Landing Rd., Talbot Co., while enroute:

Killdeer--1
Solitary Sandpiper--1
Greater Yellowlegs--1
Lesser Yellowlegs--1
Semipal. Sandpiper--1
Least Sandpiper--10
Horned Lark--3
Grasshopper Sparrow--1
E. Meadowlark--1

    Crouse Mill Rd., near corner with Ruthsburg Rd, QA Co.:

N. Bobwhite--1 flew across road in front of us

    Tuckahoe River, Queen Anne's County:

Barred Owl--1
Acadian Flycatcher--27 (numbers were high along the upper Tuckahoe)
White-eyed Vireo--4
Yellow-throated Vireo--2
No. Parula--3
Yellow Warbler--1 (parking area at Tuckahoe SP)
Chestnut-sided Warbler--1
Prothonotary Warbler--20
Ovenbird--7
No. Waterthrush--3
Louisiana Waterthrush--2
Kentucky Warbler--5
Scarlet Tanager--4
Baltimore Oriole--1

    Tuckahoe River, Caroline Co.:

Common Nighthawk--1
Acadian Flycatcher--37
White-eyed Vireo--3
Yellow-throated Vireo--1
Veery--1
Nashville Warbler--1
N. Parula--5
Chestnut-sided Warbler--1
Yellow-throated Warbler--2 (between Hillsboro and Covey's Landing)
Blackpoll Warbler--1 (Tom only)
Prothonotary Warbler--23
Ovenbird--5
No. Waterthrush--4
Louisiana Waterthrush--1
Kentucky Warbler--6
Scarlet Tanager--3
Orchard Oriole--2
Baltimore Oriole--2

    Tuckahoe River, Talbot Co.:

King Rail--1
Common Nighthawk--1
White-eyed Vireo--3
Yellow-throated Vireo--1
Prothonotary Warbler--6
No. Waterthrush--1
Scarlet Tanager--1
Orchard Oriole--5
Baltimore Oriole--2

    It was a great trip:  Bill netted a good 20 county birds, I picked up 
about 10, and it will take weeks for Tom to tally all of his up.  It's time 
for the Youghogeny!

Stan Arnold
Ferndale (AA Co.)