Hi Everyone,

Spring break is here!  Once again I am on the road enjoying our state's great birds and natural areas.  Like last year, my goal is to bird every MD county during the 10 days available.  I worked this past Friday, but Jim Brighton and I kicked the break off right with nocturnal birding on the western shore on Friday night.  Believe it or not, between the insane pace of our weekend birding (with Jim B. and Tom Feild on Sat and Sun and with Stan Arnold part of Sun) and good days on Monday and Tuesday this week, I have already birded (incidentally in a couple cases and in some instances only at night) in 20 of our 23 counties.  I will be revisiting many of these counties over the coming days to enjoy them more fully.

On Tuesday (17 Mar 2009), I birded in Wicomico, Dorchester, Caroline, and Talbot.  I had some nice birding, as summarized below:

WICOMICO COUNTY

Our backyard in Salisbury produced 3 PURPLE FINCHES (2 ad males and 1 brown), 1 BROWN CREEPER, and 2 FOX SPARROWS.

I didn't find anything unusual at Barren Creek Pond: a PIED-BILLED GREBE was present with many RING-NECKED DUCKS, an AMERICAN WIGEON, etc.


DORCHESTER COUNTY

Indiantown Rd had a nice gull flock:

Laughing Gull--3
Ring-billed Gull--106
Herring Gull--3
Great Black-backed Gull--1
LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL--1 adult breeding

Hurlock WWTP held several duck species:

Mallard--26
Green-winged Teal--4
Northern Shoveler--8
American Wigeon--28
Ring-necked Duck--7
Lesser Scaup--3
Ruddy Duck--66


CAROLINE COUNTY

Choptank Rd:

MERLIN--1 female on a wire

Choptank (the town):

Tundra Swan--a flock of 39 flying upriver
Common Goldeneye--3 (1 in Caroline, 2 in Dorchester)

Tanyard Marsh:

Green-winged Teal--15
ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK--1 perched right next to the highway near the bridge
Wilson's Snipe--14


TALBOT COUNTY

Pickering Creek had NORTHERN PINTAIL (8), NORTHERN SHOVELER (20), GREEN-WINGED TEAL (4), and a FOX SPARROW.

And I finished the day with a nice surprise at the Choptank Fishing Pier:

RED-NECKED GREBE--1 (very close to the bridge)


LISTING FUN

I have encountered 121 species and have accumulated 546 county ticks since I started on Friday.  Last year's spring break netted 132 species and 1066 ticks.  We'll see what happens this time...

Tomorrow I'm off to Queen Annes, Kent, and Cecil!

Have fun,

Ron Gutberlet
Salisbury, MD