Hi All,

Sorry for the belated posting. The Kent Bird Club's trip to Blackwater NWR and vicinity was held on Sunday 7 March. We had 12 total participants counting Nancy and I. The weather was definitely a highlight, it had been a long time since any of us had enjoyed such a sunny and relatively warm day (despite an occasionally chilly stiff NW wind). Besides birds we had two turtle species (painted and red-bellied slider), and two calling frogs, spring peeper and chorus frog. The refuge had good numbers of waterfowl including over 700 Tundra Swans, 210 pintail, 45 shovelers, and 40 Ring-necked Ducks. We saw very few Snow Geese but were treated to a flock composed entirely of 20 blue morph Snows. The AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS were in evidence with a group of 14 camouflaging themselves in a flock of 250 swans on the Blackwater River (visible from both the Wildlife Drive and the bridge over the river on MD-335) and the single (apparently flightless) bird on the river from Key Wallace Drive. A welcome sign of spring were the 17 or more Tree Swallows pirouetting over the ponds along the Wildlife Drive and behind the Visitor Center. We also had the usual spectacular Bald Eagle show as we counted at least 43.

A short walk at the Tubman Trail off Hip Roof Rd was very quiet, but we noted that the eagle nest at the end of Tubman Rd was occupied and we had some of our few woodpeckers, jays, and only towhee of the day there. We went to Cedar Creek Road off of Andrews Road on Bishops Head to look for marsh birds and raptors and a lengthy wait was finally rewarded with 2 hunting SHORT-EARED OWLS at 4:00 PM and a light morph ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK perched on a low snag out in the marsh near the end of the road. Other birds present included 2 Northern Harriers and 7 male Boat-tailed Grackles. We proceeded north to the Shorter's Wharf area of Maple Dam RD and had 3 more SHORT-EARED OWLS hunting near the road, a Greater Yellowlegs, 5 Northern Harriers, 9 American Wigeon, and 15 more Bald Eagles. We capped the day with Jim Dennis spotting 6 WILD TURKEY gobblers ghosting along at the edge of the woods of Kentuck Swamp at the south end of Egypt Rd. I have concatenated our several e-bird lists for the day into a single trip list appended below.

Good birding,

Walter Ellison

23460 Clarissa Road
Chestertown, MD 21620
phone: 410-778-9568
e-mail:  <mailto:[log in to unmask]>

"A person who is looking for something doesn't travel very fast" - E. B. 
White (in "Stuart Little")


Number of species:     57

Snow Goose     20
Canada Goose     4000
Tundra Swan     720
Gadwall     2
American Wigeon     11
American Black Duck     22
Mallard     85
Northern Shoveler     45
Northern Pintail     210
Green-winged Teal (American)     29
Ring-necked Duck     40
Hooded Merganser     2
Common Merganser     13
Ruddy Duck     1
Wild Turkey     6
American White Pelican     15
Great Blue Heron     13
Black Vulture     7
Turkey Vulture     44
Bald Eagle     64
Northern Harrier     11
Red-shouldered Hawk     1
Red-tailed Hawk (Eastern)     4
Rough-legged Hawk     1
American Kestrel     2
American Coot     8
Killdeer     8
Greater Yellowlegs     1
Dunlin     47
Ring-billed Gull     410
Herring Gull (American)     8
Great Black-backed Gull     3
Tern (sp) probably Forster's     1
Short-eared Owl     5
Mourning Dove     4
Red-bellied Woodpecker     1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker     1
Hairy Woodpecker     1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)     1
Blue Jay     4
American Crow     9
Horned Lark     1
Tree Swallow     17
Carolina Chickadee     4
Brown-headed Nuthatch     8
Eastern Bluebird     6
American Robin     40
Northern Mockingbird     3
European Starling     80
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)    21
Eastern Towhee     1
Song Sparrow     2
White-throated Sparrow     12
Northern Cardinal     2
Red-winged Blackbird     120
Common Grackle     30
Boat-tailed Grackle     7