Ruth Bergstrom, Kye Jenkins, and myself were teammates today for the Chesapeake Audubon Birdathon. What a blast, what fun to be with awesome birders like Kye and Ruth, see so many cool birds, and also run into a lot of other happy (everyone seemed to be seeing a lot) and excellent birders during the day. For birds to count, at least two of us had to ID the bird--fortunately, we were able to have at last two of us get the bird 95+% of the time. It was a BLAST. Our species list (which will soon be posted completely on the Audubon webiste) reached (give or take a couple of birds) 106.

We spent most of our time at (1) Susq State Park--then (2) Perryman Park, then (3) Canning Rd shorebird area, then (4) Swan Harbor. Go Harford go.

Here are the highlights--and I ask Kye and Ruth to please forgive me if I screwed this up, if I forgot something or got the numbers wrong. Basically, anything over 6 I put "#s." (23 warbler species for the day. That's a lot, wonderful--but there were more out there that we didn't get. E.g., we didn't get a worm-eating, but I ran into a very good birder who, in a part of the park we didn't go to, had gotten many.)

1. Susq SP:

MISSISSIPPI KITE (Ruth spotted this. What a lovely bird--stuck around a good while.)
Common Mergansers
Caspian Tern
GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH (picnic area)
Yellow-Billed Cuckoo
Rose-Breasted Grosbeak

Warblers:

Parula (#s)
Yellow (3)
Chestnut-Sided (#s)
Magnolia (#s)
BT Blue (#s)
BT Green (#s)
BLACKBURNIAN (6+)
Yellow-Throated (1, maybe 2)
Blackpoll (#s)
Cerulean (6 or so--fewer than we expected)
Black-and-White (5)
Redstart (#s)
Prothonotary (1, maybe 2, another guy had tons)
Ovenbird (#s)
Norther Waterthrush (3)
Louisiana Waterthrush (6)
Kentucky (#s)
MOURNING (1, heard only son of a..., picnic/area)
C. Yellowthroat (#s)
WILSON'S (1 picnic area, maybe 2)
CANADA (6)
Chat (3)

2. Canning Road (shorebirds)

AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER (1--I don't know if there were more before the Peregrine came. Beautiful bird--fun to compare it to the Black-bellied that were abundant. Easy to ID.)

WESTER SANDPIPER (Kye spotted this. It presented excellent views. We eliminated any other possiblities--the size of the bird (peep), the length of the bill, the drooping bill, the red coloration = Western. We all agreed. Maybe my favorite bird of the day.)

PEREGRINE FALCON (1--chased everything away.)

3. Swan Harbor

Sora (3)
Wood Duck (4)
BW Teal (2)
Green heron (1)
Marsh Wren (10+)
Veery (1, entrance, after birdathon)
Yellow-Rumped (1, entrance, after birdathon)
KING Rail (probable)

All good birding wishes as migration starts the downhill plunge,

Tim
(Glen Arm)