Bill and Karen Harris and I got up early this morning to check out Truitt's
Landing, arriving around 8:30 am.? Despite the weather, it started out great

so we decided to continue on around the surrounding landings and into
Somerset
County.?Focusing on marsh birds, we?had 95 species, and 25 species
more?could
of easily been picked up.?Highlights included:

WORCESTER

Truitt's Landing Rd

Snow Goose - large flock
Hermit Thrush
Field Sparrow
Wild Turkey - 10


Truitt's Landing

Clapper Rail
KING RAIL - 1, calling
VIRGINIA RAIL - 1, calling
Marsh Wren
Brown-headed Nuthatch - several calling
Red-throated Loon
Dunlin - alone, not feeding, and would allow?close approach, might be
injured
SALT MARSH SHARP-TAILED SPARROW - 2+
NELSON'S SHARP-TAILED SPARROW - 3+
both species sat up on a twig right next to each other!!!

Taylor's Landing

SALT MARSH SHARP-TAILED SPARROW - 7+
Eastern Meadowlark

E A Vaughn WMA roads (agriculture, scrub, and pine forest habitat)

Pine Warbler - several feeding on ground like sparrows
Brown Thrasher
Eastern Phoebe
Savannah Sparrow
Field Sparrow - singing
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Tree Swallow
Pileated Woodpecker
Golden-crowned Kinglet
GRAY CATBIRD - singing
Wood Duck
Great Blue Heron - 2 flocks of 15 flying in high V (colony?)

George Island Landing

Brant
Boat-tailed Grackle
Dunlin
Tree Swallow
Forster's Tern
GREAT EGRET - 1
GLOSSY IBIS - flock of 9, headed NW
Red-breasted Merganser- flock of 35, all females


SOMERSET

Messick Rd

PEREGRINE FALCON - 1, sitting on hack tower
GREAT EGRET - flock of 5
Pied-billed Grebe

Dames Quarter (Deal Island)

BLUE-WINGED TEAL - 12+
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Gadwall
Sharp-shinned Hawk
ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK (DARK), 1, hovering

Deal Island

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Deal Island WMA (mostly closed off)

American Wigeon
Forster's Tern
Tundra Swan
Wilson's Snipe
Greater Yellowlegs
LESSER YELLOWLEGS - 1
SNOWY EGRET - 1


YMOS Bird-a-thon went spectacular last weekend,?but we haven't been able to
match birds to there locations yet, so a full post should come soon.? But I
want to list the highlights at least.?
132 species were picked up over 3/21 and 3/22, with 6 must-see misses, which

means we raised $ on 120 species.
Highlights are of what I remember...

3/21 5 am - 8 pm
Barred Owls called through the?Pocomoke SF
Great Horned Owl, King, Virginia, and Clapper Rails, Black-crowned Night-
Herons, and Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrows were at Truitt's.
Taking the back way to Ocean City 3 juv. Vesper Sparrows were seen.
The OC Inlet held 2 Common Eiders and 1 King Eider
Skimmer Island held Lesser Black-backed Gull
32nd St had the Eared Grebe
Looking from Shantytown (were Ipswich were) the Red-necked Grebe was present
Perched Merlin at South Point
Salisbury Landfill specialty gulls were too hard to pick out for the time we

stayed! but did have a Lesser Black-backed Gull??
Elliot's Island Rd?held an American Bittern
Blackwater NWR gave us American White Pelican
Arrived at Pickering Creek?a little late for Woodcock, but
Eastern?Screech-owl
was calling
?
3/21 8 am - 7 pm
Purple Finches at Wayne Bell's feeder
Nice adult Lesser Black-backed Gull at Tanyard Marsh
Harris' property (in Highbanks, Talbot County)?had a?flyover Herring Gull
flock?of 25+, with a juv. ICELAND GULL mixed in!!! Nice county bird!!!
Gray Catbird at Kingston Landing
Transitioning Golden Eagle near Pickering Creek
Long-eared Owl (private property) breeding???
12+ White-crowned Sparrows down private part of Round Top Road


Amanda Spears
Centreville, MD