Hi Folks,

Yesterday morning (8/13) Elaine and I went to Washington Co. to look for 
shorebirds and see if we could refind the BC Night Heron found by Jim Green 
and relocated by John Hubbel.  We found some shorebirds, in fact the most 
I've ever seen in Wash. Co., but dipped on the heron.  The results:

    Beaver Creek Wetland, Rt 66 (exit 35 off of I-70):

Spotted Sandpiper--1
Solitary Sandpiper--2

    Centre at Hagerstown shopping center, north of US 40, Bartow Rd., pond 
next to wetlands:

Killdeer--4
Lesser Yellowlegs--1

    Hagerstown Airport, ponds at end of Air Park Rd., adjacent to northbound 
lane of I-81:

GB Heron--1
Kestrel--1
Killdeer--5 (12 more elsewhere on airport)
Solitary Sandpiper--3
Lesser Yellowlegs--3
SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER--1
Least Sandpiper--29

    The above represents the most shorebirds I've seen at any one location 
in Washington Co., and the habitat is excellent.  There appear to be two 
contiguous ponds, one of which was about full, and the other about half full 
providing good shorebird habitat.  Unless there is a lot of rain (unlikely), 
the habitat should only get better over the next couple of weeks.  I 
strongly urge Hans or anyone else in the area to check these ponds 
regularly, along with the airport fields for grasspipers.

YARD in AA Co.:

Last evening while doing my usual "grackle watch" I noticed a flock of about 
a dozen gulls that was flying eastward away from the house.  They began to 
swarm and fly around in circles, and I knew only one type of gull that 
exhibited this behavior, at least in this area.  I ran for my scope, and 
after a fashion I was able to get a look at the distant gulls and confirm 
that they were what I had thought:  LAUGHING GULLs, for yard bird #115 for 
the year, a full month earlier than usual.  In the past, we've only had 
laughers in mid-September, and usually for only one or two days when they 
mass into huge swirls of as many as 200 birds, apparently catching some type 
of flying insects in the area.  Not more than five mintues after viewing the 
gulls, a GREAT EGRET flew over the yard, our first of the season, and only 
second of the year.  Also our first GREAT BLUE HERON in several weeks flew 
over at a very high altitude (I needed a scope to ID it), padding our daily 
yard list nicely.

This morning (8/14) while cycling the BWI Trail around the airport I watched 
two adult LITTLE BLUE HERONs in the large retention pond near Camp Meade Rd.

Stan Arnold
Ferndale (AA Co.)