Hey everyone,

Tom Feild and I birded Kent County today.  Tom needed three county
birds to get over 200 in Kent, so we targeted some of his more
reasonable county birds.  Highlights include:

Greater White-fronted Goose -- 1 bird with a flock of Canada Geese at
the farm pond just past Ricaud's Bridge Rd going east on the way
towards Rock Hall.  We saw one Canada next to the Greater
White-fronted Goose that had some weird genes.  Tom and I presumed
that it was some type of hybrid.
Cackling Goose -- 1 bird swimming with Canada Geese at Eastern Neck
NWR at the butterfly garden overlook
Redhead -- 20+ at Eastern Neck NWR.
Long-tailed Duck -- 1 bird flying south down Eastern Bay viewed from
the butterfly garden overlook at Eastern Neck NWR.
Peregrine Falcon -- 1 bird sitting in the dirt field along side Great Oak Pond.
Bonaparte's Gull -- 1 bird at Chestertown WWTP
Red-headed Woodpecker -- 1 bird at its regular location at Eastern
Neck NWR along the main road just north of Boggle's Wharf Rd feeding
among the dead pines.
Brown Thrasher -- 1 bird in the hedgerow at Chesapeake Farms around
the area where the Golden-crowned Sparrow was last year.
NASHVILLE WARBLER -- 1 bird viewed briefly but well along the hedgerow
into Chesapeake Farms around the same area where the Golden-crowned
Sparrow was last year.  Tom and I were spishing from the car when I
spotted a warbler among the tangles in the hedgerow.  The bird popped
into a good position where I could easily see the yellow undersides on
chest and belly and up to the throat area, dull greenish gray head and
topsides with no wing bars and a bold eye ring.  The bright yellow
belly and gray butt  eliminate Virginia's Warbler.  Unfortunately, Tom
was not able to get on the bird.  We spent the next 1.5 hours trying
to refind the bird so we could document the sighting with a photograph
but we came up empty.  We observed some interesting behavior with the
feeding flocks that worked the hedgerow.  Tom picked out a juvenile
White-crowned Sparrow with part of his crown stripe turning white
feeding with two mature White-crowneds.  These birds were feeding on
the ground in the same area as the Nashville Warbler.  We were able to
follow the White-crowned Sparrows as they moved in and out of the
hedgerow with the flock which consisted mainly of White-throats,
Cardinals, and Bluejays and a single Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.  They
worked the two hedgerows in a counter clockwise fashion.  While the
Bluejays flew back and forth across the road the sparrows and
cardinals mainly worked down one hedgerow and back up the other
hedgerow across the road.  We were able to stay with the flock by
being able to identify the young White-crowned Sparrow with the white
dot on the head stripe.  In the 1.5 hours of watching birds in the
hedgerows we only saw on Sharp-shinned Hawk.

Jim Brighton
Easton, MD


############################

To unsubscribe from the MDOSPREY list:
write to: mailto:[log in to unmask]
or click the following link:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=MDOSPREY&A=1