Hi Folks,

George Jett and I met at 5:30 this morning to attempt the ludicrous task of 
finding a pheasant in July in south west Baltimore so that George could 
photograph it for his photo big year.  We began at Southwest Area Park, 
where we spent two hours making a circuit of the park, hearing or seeing no 
pheasant.  The most notable birds seen there included RT HUMMINGBIRD (which 
will become more common with the mimosas in bloom), singing WILLOW 
FLYCATCHER, a downy young BROWN THRASHER, two CHATs, 24 COMMON 
YELLOWTHROATs, and four BLUE GROSBEAKs.

From SWAP we headed over to Cherry Hill Park in Baltimore City, separated 
from SWAP by a commercial enterprise and Patapsco Avenue, but the two parks 
are almost contiguous.  I hadn't been to Cherry Hill in almost eight years, 
and George hadn't been in decades.  It was about the same as I remembered 
it.  You wouldn't want to be there after dark.  But the back part of the 
park is largely undisturbed tall grass, with scattered trees, one large 
stand of which is the highly invasive Ailantha (sp?)--"Tree of Heaven," 
imported to this country from Asia sometime in the mid 18th century (a tree 
that Elaine and I do our utmost to eliminate in our own neighborhood). 
After nearly an hour of trudging through the tall grass, a hen PHEASANT 
flushed from about 15 feet from my position.  Unfortunately, George was 
trying to get a shot of a very vocal WILLOW FLYCATCHER nearby, and by the 
time he got the camera on the bird, it had just about disappeared in some 
trees in the distance.  Personally, I was quite impressed that we even found 
a pheasant, and it's good to know they are still in the park.  This may 
STILL be the best place in Maryland to find one.  It's not that big a park; 
it's just hard to wade through the tall grass.  At least there is ample 
opportunity for George to return since these birds don't appear to wander 
much.

In other news, my nephew Max and I did our final kayaking adventure this 
past Monday, as he flew home to Indianapolis yesterday.  We went up to Cecil 
County, with the intent of paddling around Elkton Marsh, but we found the 
access there to be closed, and ended up putting in along the Elk River in 
the vicinity of Triton Marina.  So, we had to get to Elkton Marsh the hard 
way, by paddling up a part of the Elk River, and it was a bit of a struggle 
in places because the tide was low and the water was only two or three 
inches deep for a considerable distance.  Anyway, as we passed the marina I 
counted 35 sterna terns perched on the pilings or else flying nearby.  All 
the ones I could positively identify were FORSTER'S TERNs, many of them 
still with full black caps.  The only gulls with the terns were RING-BILLED 
GULLs, of which I counted 18.

As we negotiated the shallows of the Elk River enroute to Elkton Marsh, I 
was amazed at the number of swallows, and more amazed that most of them were 
BANK SWALLOWs.  We tallied 58 of them, which was more than all the other 
swallows combined (Tree, Barn, and Martin).  There were a number of Great 
Blue Herons and Great Egrets standing in the shallows of the river.  When we 
made it to the end of the Elk River and the beginning of Big Elk Creek, the 
paddling got easier, and the habitat more interesting.  We followed the 
river just about to the Elkton town line before turning around and heading 
back.  Here we had four singing MARSH WRENs, a SPOTTED SANDPIPER, two 
SOLITARY SANDPIPERs, and a singing YB CHAT.  On our return, a small white 
wader dropped into the marsh, and it turned out to be an imm. LITTLE BLUE 
HERON, a bird I've now seen many times in Cecil Co.  It's the Snowy that I 
have yet to find.  We ended up paddling over seven miles in a bit more than 
three hours.  The Elkton Marsh is really a great place to paddle, and I'm 
hoping to return in the spring.

Enjoy the rain, if you get some.  We in Ferndale have been on the fringe all 
day long, but not a drop has fallen.

Stan Arnold
Ferndale (AA Co.)