I did some birding running the length of Calvert County this morning before it 
got too hot. 


First, I tried for the Tricolored Heron and Yellow-crowned Night-heron in 
southern Anne Arundel and failed. The office at Herrington Harbour wasn't open 
so like Jim Green, I didn't stick around long.

North Beach Marsh was much more productive. When I first pulled in, I could see 
a Tricolored Heron on the mudflat right next to the road near the Osprey nest 
pole. It flew off to the marsh due west of the little parking area and joined a 
second one that I hadn't noticed. There were about 25 Snowy Egrets and one Great 
Egret. The juvenile Yellow-crowned Night-heron was in the tidal gut on the Bay 
side of the road best seen from the beach. Shorebird diversity was weak with 
Least, Semipalmated, Spotted and Solitary Sandpipers and the usual Killdeer. 
Lots of Forster's Terns and only a few Least Terns. I scanned the Bay looking 
for pelicans in either Anne Arundel or Calvert but saw none.

I stopped in Chesapeake Beach on the south side of the inlet just outside the 
entrance to the marina which for the last couple of years has shown prominent No 
Trespassing signs. I was hoping to hear a marsh wren but whiffed. I did see a 
juvenile Black-crowned Night-heron fly up from the marsh then off to the west. I 
didn't get a great look at it but the legs didn't stick out very far behind the 
tail.

My final stop was near Prince Frederick on Leitch's Wharf Road where there was a 
pair of American Kestrels! One appeared to be a juvenile as it had some really 
funky looking feathers around the head and rump. Both birds were males.

Stay cool everyone.
 
Tyler Bell

California, Maryland