Hey everyone,

On Saturday Jared Satchell and I birded the lower shore.  We started
out at dawn in the Ocean City area.  At the inlet there were not that
many waterfowl present, but we were able to scope a few of the Common
Eiders that were hanging out on the south side of the jetty.  Purple
Sandpipers, Ruddy Turnstones, and Sanderlings were the only shorebirds
present.  There was also a Boat-tailed Grackle feeding on the jetty
rocks.  We then went to Isle of Wight where we were able to scope a
single drake Common Goldeneye feeding near the Rt 90 bridge with a
group of Bufflehead.  Red-breasted Mergansers were fairly common on
the bay.  The Ocean Pines ponds held Ring-necked Ducks, Hooded
Mergansers, Canada Geese, and not much else.  West Ocean City pond
held the normal dabblers and a small group of Canvasback.  On
Assateague we were able to easily locate the Lark Sparrow in the State
Park.  We spent almost three hours in the Ocean City area and couldn't
find a single Brant.

We couldn't find any unusual gulls at the Worcester landfill and the
landfill pond did not hold any unusual waterfowl.  At Porter's
Crossing we were able to call in a White-breasted Nuthatch.

We then traveled to Truitt's Landing where we had a single Marsh Wren,
a small group of Brown-headed Nuthatches, 3 Fox Sparrows, and 7 Lesser
Yellowlegs.  At Taylor's Landing we counted 112 Forster's Terns mostly
at rest on the broken bulkheads out in the bay.  EA Vaughn WMA (north)
held a Northern Bobwhite, a single House Wren, and 2 Eastern Phoebes.

We hit Somerset County around 2pm.  In Crisfield we found a Great
Egret feeding in a ditch and not much else.  The Deal Island area held
a lot more birds.  Two Peregrine Falcons were feeding on the hack
tower to the east of the Messick Rd boat ramp. On Riley Robert's Rd we
found three more Great Egrets which morphed into 17 Great Egrets when
they all of a sudden lifted out of the marsh.  We were able to pick
out a single Snowy Egret flying with the group.  With dusk upon us we
stationed ourselves on the dike at the end of Riley Robert's Rd and
were treated to a single Short-eared Owl, 4 Tricolored Herons, 3
American Bitterns, and a single Black-crowned Night-Heron.  We had six
heron species in 20 minutes on Riley Robert's Rd in January. That is
really amazing!

Today, Colleen and I chased the Barnacle Goose and we were able to
locate the bird in the horse pasture on Rt 219.  The bird was hidden
below a ridge when we arrived, but after about 10 minutes a group of
20 Canada Geese with the Barnacle Goose flew up and joined the rest of
the flock.  Thanks, Dan and Maren for finding this incredible bird.

On the way up to Chestertown we stopped at the Rt 219 pond about a
mile south of Rt 309.  Jared Satchell had found Wood Ducks here
earlier in the day and I was able to count 13 Wood Ducks when Colleen
and I arrived.

Eastern Neck NWR held two drake Redhead, a few calling Brown-headed
Nuthatches, and a single Fox Sparrow.

Jim Brighton
Easton, MD

www.midatlanticnature.blogspot.com

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