Hi Everybody:

 I spent the entire day in St. Mary's County looking for shorebirds. With my expectations not so high (did not want to be disappointed) I visited about 8-10 locations putting up with the heat & humidity. Shorebirds are not easy to find in this county. I did have a little success but not a whole lot. Below is a summary of my day.

Elms WMA: 2 Spotted Sandpipers along the beach (a county bird and Closeout #100). Biscoe Pond was very full of water, hence no shorebirds.

Point Lookout St. Pk: I found 2 Spotted Sandpipers and also 4 Least Sandpipers.

Long Neck Road was completely dry at the left hand turn...no shorebirds.

I drove to the end of Beachville Road and walked the shoreline around Saint Iginoes Rec Area. No shorebirds, but I did have 5-6 Royal Terns noisily flyover. On the way back I quickly scanned the fenced-in fields of the PAX River NAS for Uppies but that was futile.

There was nothing seen on either side of the road at St. Mary's City near the college.

I drove to the end of Piney Point Road and explored St. George Island...nothing here but a few Killdeer.

Beauvue Ponds has slowly receding water levels but not near to the point where there was any semblance of mudflats showing. I did find 2 Spotted Sands here. 

The greatest concentration of shorebirds( if you can call it a concentration) was at the St. Mary Co. Water Treatment Plant. I asked and received permission to check the 3 ponds. Not alot of diversity but there were 20+ Killdeer, 18 Least Sands and 7-8 Solitary Sandpipers (my 2nd & last county bird for the day).

Not a great day but definitely better than a day this past spring when John Hubbell and I saw only 1 Killdeer for the day in St. Mary's County. I was somewhat surprised at the lack of waders for the day since they seem to be falling out of the sky throughout MD. I saw only 1 Great Egret, 2 Green Herons and a about 20 Great Blues. 

Jim Green
Gaithersburg, MD

work in moderation, BIRD IN EXCESS!!!