The 2nd official (but 3rd in total) Chesterville CBC was held yesterday the 21st.  The day started off with freezing rain but ended nicely with clear skies and moderate winds. Intrepid observers included: Jared & Zach Parks, Ben Weinstein, Kevin Graff, Nancy Martin, Walter Ellison, Danny Poet, Bill Gimpel, Victoria Cadby, Jim Kohl, Jim Gruber, Dan Small, Peter Blank, Jean-François Savard, David Holmes,  Joseph German, Doug Gill, Harry Sears, Zach Baer, Hanson & Frances Robbins and Helga Orrick.  
 
The freezing rain did help the count by pushing some birds off the fields onto the road edges making them easier to look through. Despite the scarcity of ducks the total species count for the day of 101 was buoyed with some very nice finds. 
 
Standouts were:
 
3 Golden Eagles- two on Chino Farms and one around Millington WMA
2 Northern Shrikes- the Shrike originally found on Nov3 on Chino, and another found on Quinn Rd in Queen Annes Co. using the hedgerow near an old farm building. 
1 Dickcissel- a hatch-year  female found on Chino.
1 Baltimore Oriole- most likely a hatch-year male also found on Chino.
50 Northern Bobwhite- also on Chino.
  
Other highlights/high counts  include 15 Palm Warblers (13 yellow, 2 western), 1 Lapland Longspur, 2 Snow buntings and 27 Rusty Blackbirds. Good numbers of  Horned Larks (1120), American Pipits (129), Eastern Bluebirds (146) and American  Kestrels (21) were also found.
 
Owling proved productive despite the conditions with 23 Screech, 8 Barred and 13 Great-horned. 
 
Maren Gimpel
Chestertown, MD