Hi All,

I spent Yesterday birding on the Eastern Shore with Chris Milensky, Peter
Osenton, and Dave Ziolokowski.  Some of the highlights from the day were-

2 LEAST BITTERNs on a nest at Truitts Landing, Dave first spotted the birds
fas they flew to the nest location we were able to get excellent looks at
the birds, we also located 1 WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER among the many
SEMIPLAMATED SANDPIPERS on the mudflats there.  At Castaways Campground, we
saw 2 flocks of RED KNOTS totaling ~25 birds flying north, 1 PIPING PLOVER
on Assateague, and 2 BLACK SKIMMERS roosting on the sandflats.  Skimmer
Island had a decent number of COMMON and ROYAL TERNS, 3 BLACK SKIMMERs
roosting, and 4 RED KNOTs foraging on the flats.  Ocean City Inlet still
hosted a single female COMMON EIDER, a male SURF SCOTER, and numerous PURPLE
SANDPIPERS.  We stopped along Old Railroad Road to see the hybrid sandpiper
that Jim Stasz had found earlier, and that Jim Brighton had posted about, it
certainly was an awesome bird!  Our last stop of the day was at Hurlock STP;
Jim Brighton always says all you need to do to find phalaropes is go to
Hurlock during a storm, we did just that and located 3 RED-NECKED PHALAROPEs
hanging out on the water.  A nice day to be out!

Photos of the phalaropes and hybrid sandpiper can be seen at-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeycerw/

Good Birding!
Mikey Lutmerding
Croom, MD