Hello all,
I found a number of new arrivals yesterday (and FOS Orchard Oriole on 4/24).  In the morning, I heard my FOS Grasshopper Sparrow, House Wren before a rain delay around 8 AM.  The House Wren is an unexpected spring visitor (2nd spring record), though I get them every fall.  During the afternoon, I was planting sunflowers in my food plot.  I have come to recognize to collective noise of the blackbirds, starlings, tree swallows and martins responding to the intrusions of some raptor.  The first one was a Cooper's hawk, second was an adult Bald Eagle, the 3rd  and best was a Merlin.  I almost let the 3rd one go, thinking it was a repeat of one of the first two.
I the evening, I went out to check bird boxes that I had not gotten to before the rain.  The warm front and muggy SW winds that followed the morning rain seemed to have brought in some birds during the day.  I found FOS Eastern Kingbird and Red-eyed Vireo.  In my ponds, there were FOS Spotted Sandpiper (2) and Solitary Sandpiper (1 - about 2 weeks later than expected) that were not there in the morning, along with 10 Greater Yellowlegs that had been there all day.  The local puddles in the fields have nearly all dried.  It leaves my wetlands (and the neighbor's field immediately adjacent) as the only game in town now.
I continued on to walk the RR beyond my property.  I soon encountered the strong smell of something dead.  It turned out to be tadpoles that had their puddle dry up a couple days too soon.  They were forming the body, but still had a tail.  They had to have been close.  Then I encounter Ovenbird activity close to the edge.  I saw 3 birds and watched carefully, hoping to see some breeding activity, but got nothing that I could confirm.  As I was doing that, I heard something above and looked up to find one, and then another, Great Horned Owl fledgling staring down at me.  There was my new breeding confirmation.

Good birding,
Glen Lovelace III
Seaford, DE