Greetings Again,

Yesterday, Sunday May 2, I spent three hours walking a 4 or 5 mile loop through a very quiet Elk Neck State Forest (ENSF). The stiflingly humid morning began in the parking area near the maintenance building where I quickly noted Ovenbird and Worm-eating Warblers sounding off! Unfortunately, the next three hours produced long periods of nothing except the ubiquitous Ovenbird chorus and the occasional song of the few other migrants that were around. One highlight was hearing a Hooded Warbler singing and then patiently locating the bird in the thick dark  of a pitch pine stand. 

I ended the day, after an afternoon nap, with a nice little boat ride from Charlestown to Cara Cove on the North East River in Cecil County. During the ride, I noted my FOY Forster’s Tern, a few cormorant a few Ring-billed Gulls, Black Vulture, and a huge adult (female?) Bald Eagle being chased by one of at least 20 Osprey. Many pairs of Ospreys are on nests; the nest on the dock where we keep our boat has contained 3 eggs for at least a week. 

Note: Zero Laughing Gulls were seen on the North East River, though at least 40 were seen and heard in the ENSF earlier. I am surmising that these LAGUs come from Delaware (saltier DE bay) via the C&D Canal which is only a few miles from ENSF in order to visit the Cecil County Landfill which shares boundaries with ENSF. I say this because I never note LAGUs on the Western side of the Elk Neck Peninsula until late July and even then they are mostly wandering hatch-year birds.

An abridged list of the ENSF birds follows:


ENSF:

Great Blue Heron (many flyovers)
Canada Goose (pair on forest pond)
Laughing Gull (40 +/-)
Red-eyed Vireo (11)
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (6)
Gray Catbird (2)
Northern Parula (2)
Pine Warbler (18)
Black and White Warbler (4)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (3)
Hooded Warbler (1)
Worm-eating Warbler (10)
Ovenbird (50+ I am being conservative, there were probably more like 75!!!)
Common Yellowthroat (2)

Happy migration,
Chris Starling
North East, MD