Hi all,

Jim Brighton, Jo Anna and I spent a great day birding the Eastern
Shore.  We started out doing a loop from Blackwater to Elliott Island
in search of flooded fields and shorebirds.  Along Egypt Road, a
PEREGRINE FALCON put up a few GREATER and LESSER YELLOWLEGS that were
using the promising new magical impoundments there.  Further on down
the road we saw what was most certainly the same Peregrine flying
around a Laughing Gull that it had just killed, as it was about to
land a BALD EAGLE flew in and took over, the falcon made a few very
close passes at the eagle but eventually gave up and continued on its
way.   We saw one AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN along Key Wallace Drive where
it crosses the Little Blackwater River, and a very soggy SHORT-EARED
OWL near Bespitch.  On Henry's Cross Road, we had one NORTHERN
BOBWHITE run across the road.  Along this route, we located several
flooded fields with good numbers of both species of yellowlegs, and
decent numbers of DUNLIN; the last field we stopped at was just south
of Vienna and had the greatest diversity of the day, it had, in
addition to the previously mentioned shorebirds, about 15 LEAST
SANDPIPERS, a PECTORAL SANDPIPER, about 250 BONAPARTE'S GULLS, one
CASPIAN TERN, and 2 GLOSSY IBIS among the LAUGHING and RING-BILLED
GULLS.  A quick stop along Old Railroad Rd yielded 4 CATTLE EGRETS in
the pond across from the turf farm.   We continued on to the
Nassawango area where we located numerous BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHERS, PINE
WARBLERS, and one singing LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSH.  From there we headed
to the Ocean City area.  We stopped at Eagle's Nest Campground, the
highlights here were 8 PIPING PLOVERS, 7 WILLET, 8 SHORT-BILLED
DOWITCHERS, one LITTLE BLUE HERON, and a small group of LEAST
SANDPIPERS among the many DUNLIN, SANDERLING and BLACK-BELLIED
PLOVERS.  West Ocean City pond was quite empty with 3 LITTLE BLUE
HERONS, 4 GADWALL, and 3 AMERICAN WIGEON.  At Skimmer Island we
located one first-cycle GLAUCOUS GULL,  2 LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLs
(an adult and a second-cycle) among the commoner species, we also saw
an impressive number (400 is a conservative estimate) of
DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS.  The bird of the day came from our next and
final stop at the inlet.  We started scanning the south side of the
jetty just to the west of the highpoint in the center when we came
across a very dark alcid.   We were able to get good albeit brief
looks at a COMMON MURRE over the next half hour as it foraged and
bobbed around in the surf.  The bird was in breeding plumage, with an
all dark head, bill, and neck, the bill was quite long and thin,
unlike Thick-billed murre and Razorbill.  It showed no large white
patches in the wings eliminating guillemot, the bill structure,
overall size, and the lack of a white throat ruled out any of the
vagrant murrelets.  Other birds around the inlet were 2 HARLEQUIN
DUCKS, numerous COMMON and RED-THROATED LOONS, at least 40 PURPLE
SANDPIPERS, 5 ROYAL TERNS, a large concentration of DC CORMORANTS,
BONAPARTE'S GULLS, and FORSTER'S TERNS in a feeding frenzy (in the
same general area where the murre was) as well as great numbers of
NORTHERN GANNETS offshore.  All and all a fantastic way to spend a
rainy spring day!!!

Good Birding!
Mikey Lutmerding
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeycerw/
Croom, MD