Hi All,
We decided to get down to Chesapeake Farms today to look for Ron
Gutberlet's Yellow-crowned Night-Heron and also to look for shorebirds.
No luck on the former, but better luck with the latter. We had 42
species on our quick 1 hour check around the auto tour (see appended
e-bird listing below). Most of the shorebirds were at the HQ pond across
MD-20 from the main tour road and off Ricaud's Branch Road. Best
shorebird was an alternate plumage STILT SANDPIPER at the HQ pond. Also
present there were 110 Least Sandpipers, 12 Lesser Yellowlegs, 25
Short-billed Dowitchers (8 *hendersoni*), and 8 Semipalmated Sandpipers.
On each of the first two ponds on the main auto tour were a Spotted
Sandpiper and Solitary Sandpiper. We also had decent numbers of staging
swallows including 49 Bank Swallows. The stretch of woods past the two
big drained ponds on the route held a DELMARVA FOX SQUIRREL, a very nice
mammalian bonus for heading out in the heat and humidity.
Good birding,
Walter Ellison & Nancy Martin
23460 Clarissa Rd
Chestertown, MD 21620
"A person who is looking for something doesn't travel very fast" - E. B.
White (in "Stuart Little")
Location: Chesapeake Farms
Observation date: 7/17/10
Number of species: 42
Mallard 2
Great Blue Heron 2
Black Vulture 1
Turkey Vulture 24
Killdeer 17
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Solitary Sandpiper 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 14
Semipalmated Sandpiper 8
Least Sandpiper 117
Stilt Sandpiper 1
Short-billed Dowitcher (Atlantic) 17
Short-billed Dowitcher (Prairie) 8
Downy Woodpecker 2
Eastern Wood-Pewee 2
Eastern Kingbird 2
Red-eyed Vireo 2
Purple Martin 20
Tree Swallow 1
Bank Swallow 49
Barn Swallow 26
Carolina Chickadee 2
Tufted Titmouse 1
Carolina Wren 2
Eastern Bluebird 2
American Robin 2
Gray Catbird 2
Northern Mockingbird 6
Brown Thrasher 2
European Starling 13
Cedar Waxwing 2
Common Yellowthroat 5
Eastern Towhee 3
Grasshopper Sparrow 3
Northern Cardinal 4
Blue Grosbeak 1
Indigo Bunting 8
Red-winged Blackbird 15
Eastern Meadowlark 1
Common Grackle 3
Orchard Oriole 1
House Sparrow 2 |