Sandhill Cranes Lifers  YESSSSSS! Did an overnight trip to Sykes friends house last night on the Chester River and on the way home this afternoon we stopped at the Leverage Road location to look for SANDHILL CRANES . We found 2 through  the opening in the pine trees that Dan Small had reported on Wednesday . Didnt take much effort to see them . just drove down Leverage road looked for the opening in the pines ( pines being about 10 foot high ) and spotted the birds . they were maybe 200 feet  from the road near the mound of compost . though they did move closer toward the pine trees  and we couldnt see them from the road . we got out and walked up to the opening ,  peeked around the pines and found them at another smaller compost pile . One foraging on ground , the other standing on top the compost looking like a Queen (well just maybe its a girl ). Beautiful birds ! Thanks to all who reported them. 
Also want to say i stopped on John Brown Road yesterday on the way down to look for possible shorebirds. After about 2 minutes of  seeing only Killdeer i found the butterflys on the roadside and totally forgot about shorebirds. after about an hour of chasing and photographing  butterflys  i heard a loud noise that sounded like steam being released out of an engine . Birds were spooked and i counted 65 i assumed all Killdeer. They all looked the same to me. Finally saw some tents at the house on the Sod Farm and saw that they were shooting flares? fireworks? .I thought they were shooting at me.  Maybe it was a party and they dont always do this. 
Bird list 
Killdeer 65 

Buglist 
Eastern tiger swallowtail 2 
Monarch    2
Zebra Swallowtail  2
Sulphurs      50
Common Buckeye   20
American Lady 2
Little blues  5
Red spotted purple  5
Spicebush Swallowtail 1
Swamp Darner 1  on road 
Potato Beetle 1
Brown furry  caterpillar  6   back and forth across road 
dont let me get  started on the moth list! over 200 this summer and counting .
Saundra Byrd

baltimore 

--- On Wed, 8/11/10, dan small <> wrote:

> From: dan small <>
> Subject: [MDOSPREY] Sandhill Cranes - QA County - Yes
> To: 
> Date: Wednesday, August 11, 2010, 6:45 PM
> Well, persistence is the name of the
> game. Maren Gimpel and I have now tried for 
> the Cranes 9 times and have come up empty until this
> evening. This doesn't count 
> the all the times we tried when they were on Ben's point
> Rd, luckily 
> we live less than five miles away.  We saw them  at
> 1825 feeding in a bean field 
> on the south side of Leverage Road after it makes a 90
> degree turn to the east 
> (when you are heading south from rt 544). There is an
> opening in the pines 
> lining the field that provides a good vantage to scan the
> field. 
> 
> 
> Dan Small
> Chestertown, MD
> 
> 
> 
>