This year we tried a new strategy for rails in our section of the May 
Count in PG County - we now live 30 mile by road from a certain section 
of the Patuxent River, but only 3 miles from the dock at Lower Marlboro 
directly across the river from it.  So we arrived there at 4:30 am, with 
a full moon, and sure enough heard King Rail, as well as Gr H Owl, 
calling from the PG side.

We covered Merkle WMA in default of the usual team. Numbers of breeding 
birds were normal, but the number of migrants was very low - only 1 
Northern  W’thrush, 1 Black-thr Blue, and (but this was remarkable) 3 
Lincoln’s Sparrows together. As a result we had the lowest May Count 
species total I’ve had in the 24 years I’ve been doing them - 82.  In 
addition we covered the parks and WMA’s along the Patuxent southward - 
too much area to cover effectively. Hoping to bolster our count with 
Aquasco Farm Park, we were instead appalled to discover that the entire 
arable area has been so “no-tilled” w/ heavy application of chemicals 
that no growing thing is left; a brown desert greets the eye from 
wood-edge to wood-edge. Is there any way to get through to the managers 
of these places?

By contrast, the grassy fields at Merkle remain, for now, un-mowed and 
Meadowlarks and Grasshopper Sparrows (but no Bobolinks) have returned to 
them. Does this reflect a new enlightened policy by DNR, or are the 
mowers merely biding their time until the nests are at full capacity 
before slashing them up?

Fred Fallon
Huntingtown