I was out early today on the coast.  A stop enroute for coffee in Easton proved fortuitous, as a fellow birder was there by coincidence and I left with some great advice!  We chatted about shorebirds and other hoped-for birds, and he suggested an few places to try.  Among them was the airport in Salisbury, to try for an Upland since I was headed past Salisbury anyway.  He'd looked and not seen one yet, but said they are due for arrival.

I found the airport but am unfamiliar with it and didn't know where to look specifically, so I basically started looking as soon as I got to the airport, along Airport road and a side road (I forget the name).  I tried vantages from several locations and found several Grasshopper Sparrows, a Meadowlark, and Killdeer before all of a sudden there it was.  A beauty, feeding along the edge of the tarmac.  Although the airport was very quiet, the road itself had a lot of commuter (I'm guessing) traffic.  I watched it for ten minutes and am fairly confident it was alone.  It got up once and flew a short circle, without calling, and then landed in the same area and began feeding again.  I left at about 6:30 am.

I also birded at teh OC Inlet, Skimmer Island, Assateague INS, and a couple placess in between.  Another noteworthy highlight was my all-time high count of 7 piping plovers in view at once (not all were together though)!  They were seen at Eagles Nest Campground, from the dock afrea, and were out on a couple different mudflats to the east of the campground.  I stopped at the visitor center first and asked permission to look for birds, and they were very friendly. 

Cheers!
Jeff Shenot
Croom MD

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