Hi All,

Nancy and I had our monthly book shop volunteer duty at Eastern Neck NWR 
on Saturday (11 April '09). After a wet start and a quiet afternoon of 
greeting visitors and typing the atlas junco account on the laptop we 
did a bit of birding in the clearing northwest bluster on our way home. 
Best bird was a single very early LEAST TERN on one of the piers at the 
landing at Bogle's Wharf. On the way back from Bogle's we had 2 Virginia 
Rails in the marsh just east of the Duck Inn Trail lot. There are still 
good numbers of Bufflehead (ca. 75) at the island, we also had 15 scaup 
(sp; probably Greaters), a hen Common Goldeneye, and a hen Red-breasted 
Merganser. There were 15 Forster's Terns, 5 Caspian Terns, and 40 
Bonaparte's Gulls at Eastern Neck Narrows. At Alton Farms, on the east 
side of MD-445 at the sharp bend north of the island, there were 4 
Gadwall, 12 Green-winged Teal, Greater Yellowlegs, 3 Purple Martins, and 
3 handsome drake BLUE-WINGED TEAL. At Chesapeake Farms we had 158 
Green-winged Teal, and 5 pintail. Nice to see the shad trees in bloom.

Good birding,

Walter Ellison & Nancy Martin

23460 Clarissa Rd
Chestertown, MD 21620
410-778-9568

Observing Nature is like unwrapping a big pile of presents every time 
you take a walk.