Hey everyone,

Jared Satchell and I birded the Eastern Shore today.  We started at OC
Inlet where we had the Common Eiders and all three scoter species.  We
finally ran into a single Harlequin Duck.  It was an imm/female type.
We then met up with Jim Stasz and birded Skimmer Island where we had
the Red Knot which was associating with Dunlin and Ruddy Turnstones.
West Ocean City Pond had two Black-crowned Night-Herons and the usual
waterfowl.

Jared and I left Jim in Ocean City and went to Wicomico County where
we hit all the Salisbury ponds.  Nothing unusual, just Ring-necked
Ducks, Hooded Mergansers, and a few Pied-billed Grebes.  On Wells Rd
we had a blackbird flock that contained three Rusty Blackbirds. At the
end of Clara Rd we scoped two Red-throated Loons towards the mouth of
the Wicomico River. We then headed down Muddy Hole Rd where we had a
Gray Catbird and a handful of Fox Sparrows.  On Jesterville Rd we hit
a sparrow flock that contained four Chipping Sparrows and a Brown
Thrasher. The Nanticoke waterfront wasn't very productive except for a
single drake Surf Scoter that was hanging with a Ruddy Duck flock.
Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye, and Lesser Scaup were the only waterfowl
we saw on the river. At the Jesterville flats we had 62 Green-winged
Teal. Resting on the north jetty at Cedar Hill marina was a single
Lesser Black-backed Gull with the more numerous Greater Black-backed
and Herring Gulls. In the town of Tyaskin we had another Brown
Thrasher.  Barren Creek pond held two female Gadwall and another
Pied-billed Grebe.

We then headed into Dorchester County.  The Vienna barrow pit held
three American Coot, two Pied-billed Grebes, and three Redhead.  The
Linkwood Millpond had 29 Common Mergansers.  At the southern end of
Linkwood Rd there was a Canada Goose flock that had a Greater
White-fronted Goose that was feeding very close to the road.  On
Indian Bone Rd Jared spotted a Red-shouldered Hawk. At Blackwater we
had six American White Pelicans along with a smattering of Northern
Shovelers and an estimated 800 Northern Pintail.  At the end of Oakley
St in Cambridge we found the drake Redhead with the Canvasback flock.

Jim Brighton
Easton, MD

www.midatlanticnature.blogspot.com

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