Hi Everybody:

 I spent the night, albeit a very short night at Irish Grove Monday night. After a few hours of sleep I drove 30 minutes and met Ron Gutberlet and Mikey Lutmerding in Somerset County at 4:45 AM on Tuesday. Ron & I were helping Mikey do a designated Breeding Bird Survey route which started just after 5 AM and consisted of 50 different checkpoints at which you recorded ALL species heard and seen as well as numbers of each. Each one of us kept our own tallies. I do not have specific roads for our stops; I have them written down as Stop # 1, Stop # 2, etc. I arrived at about 4:30, not sure how long it would take me, and when I arrived at our meeting point (a 3-way intersection of Perryman, Perryman Church and Dublin Roads) I could hear several Chuck-Will-Widows calling. Some of the highlights of our survey in no particular order included: Great Horned Owls calling, Blue Grosbeaks (seemed to be everywhere), Cattle Egrets, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Pine, Prairie, Prothonotary & Worm-eating Warblers, Yellow-breasted Chat, Grasshopper Sparrow, Wild Turkey, N. Bobwhite, Marsh Wren and Orchard Oriole. The Hummngbird was my only County bird of the survey.

Since we ended with Stop # 50 near Rumbley Point we drove out through the marsh to the end of the road.  Species seen were very similar to my previous report with two welcome additions: several Willets (our only shorebird) and a Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow which was very cooperative in sitting up on several perches. Mikey should have gotten some nice pictures.

After they dropped me off at my car I headed over to Flemming Mill Pond Road in the hopes of trying one more time for my Somerset Yellow-throated Vireo. After 20 futile minutes I left with the intention of heading for Caroline County. 
Not too long after I turned onto Pete's Hill Road I pulled over for a short lunch break and a cold drink from the cooler. About 5 minutes into my lunchbreak a Yellow-throated Vireo began to sing off and on for the next ten minutes. The Vireo was my tenth new Somerset County bird for this trip. 

After several hours of slowly driving back roads I ended up on Bradley Road in Carroll County to look for the Dickcissel previously reported by John Hubbell. It was very windy and on my first time up and down the road I was not able to locate the bird. Dan Haas showed up and the wind seemed to subside. After about 5 minutes the Dickcissel began to sing and 10 minutes or so later it had moved fairly close to us. While we enjoyed the Dickcissel we had a nice assortment of other field and grassland birds that included Horned Larks, Grasshopper Sparrow, E. Meadowlark, Blue Grosbeak and a very close to the road (but not seen) calling Northern Bobwhite.

Instead of staying one more night on the Eastern Shore I decided to head home and then spend most of the next day in Washington County. I had a delightful three days of birding on the Western & Eastern shores of Maryland.

Jim Green
Gaithersburg, MD

WORK IN MODERATION, BIRD IN EXCESS!!!