Hi Folks,

A little summary of the past four days.  On Thursday afternoon/evening
I had an enjoyable outing with Bill Hubick and Rob Ostrowski hitting a
few spots in the Jug Bay area.  Highlights were a BLUE-WINGED WARBLER
at the entrance gate to Selby's Landing (PG), flyover BOBOLINKs across
the river (both counties), a season-first PIED-BILLED GREBE on the AA
side of the river and at Merkle a N. HARRIER (also one at Jug Bay) and
an E. MEADOWLARK.

On Saturday morning (21 Aug) I led a bird walk at Swan Creek, AA Co.,
near the Key Bridge and we had seven species of waders, highlighted by
a TRICOLORED HERON, a flyover CATTLE EGRET, and an imm BLACK-CROWNED
NIGHT HERON.  Interesting migrants seen by some of the group were
PECTORAL SANDPIPER, YELLOW WARBLER, and BOBOLINK.  Little Blue Heron
numbers continue to drop, and we tallied eleven, mostly adults, down
considerably from the high of 45 a few weeks ago which were mostly
white immatures.  Also, 68 CASPIAN TERNs was an impressive count for
AA Co.  It was good to have many Ospreyers along for the outing.

That afternoon I stopped at Sands Road Park to tally a single E.
MEADOWLARK, then headed down to the Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary where I
heard my first SORA of the season, while being constantly serenaded by
a pair of Barred Owls.

This morning (22 Aug), after two hours of getting soaked at
Davidsonville Park where one NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH was the best find
and only migrant, I headed over to Herrington Harbor in southern AA
Co. to count the terns and gulls.  The only bird of note was a BROWN
PELICAN that flew from its perch on the very distant pound nets.  I
had nearly 150 terns, but they were all COMMON, FORSTER'S, and ROYAL.

In our Ferndale yard, we had our first CANADA WARBLER of the season on
Thursday, seven LAUGHING GULLs on Friday (not common here) along with
about 40 CHIMNEY SWIFTs, and a flyover LITTLE BLUE HERON (adult) today
(first of the year here).

Stan Arnold
Ferndale (AA Co.)
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