Hi Everybody:

Kathy Calvert and I spent a very chilly and blustery day (Wed. (4/11) on the Eastern Shore. Kathy will be posting everything on ebird (she kept the lists and numbers) but I wanted to give a few highlights of our day. We slowly worked our way over towards the western edges of Wicomico County making several roadside stops along the way. Signs of spring included singing Yellow-rumped and Pine Warblers, Common Yellowthroats, Ovenbirds and Brown Thrashers. We stopped at most of the access points to viewing the choppy Nanticoke River with a wishlist of possible Bonaparte's Gulls, Horned Grebes, etc. but they all remained on the wishlist. We did see FORSTER'S and CASPIAN TERNS, 1 small raft of RUDDY DUCKS at Cove Point Rd. and some GREATER SCAUP at Waterview. I noon drive across Muddy Hole Rd. did not offer much new other than a few BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHERS.

We then took the Whitehaven ferry over into Somerset County and worked our way over to Deal Island Rd. We saw a mix of birds from the road and pulled over on the shoulder and scoped from in front of the car. We saw both GREEN and BLUE-WINGED TEAL,  2 BLACK-NECKED STILTS, DUNLIN, GREATER & LESSER YELLOWLEGS, and 1 LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER.

We then entered Deal Island WMA at Riley Roberts Rd. The first pulloff on the left had several GREAT and 1 SNOWY EGRET. We continued down Riley Roberts Rd. past the first yellow gate on the left; several hundred yards past this gate where the water opens up we were scanning with scopes and Kathy saw a distant bird sitting on the water. It was at the edge of distortion by heat waves and it originally appeared gull-like. Its head was turned to make it appear larger and the wind was blowing the mantle and back feathers up in the air which to us further appeared to look like a gull from that distance. After a minute or so when the bird shifted position and straightened its head it appeared more loon-like. Another minute later we confirmed that we were looking at a RED-THROATED LOON. After a few minutes we slowly continued on to the end of the road. On the drive back we took another look at the RTLO and it was diving and feeding and now much closer to us. All field marks indicated an adult non-breeding plumaged bird with the white extending down the side of the neck to the base of the shoulder and the white speckling on a dark back with the bill facing upward.

We both felt that it was in a very unexpected location and would be curious to hear if others agree or whether this is not that unusual.

On the way out we stopped at that yellow gate (now on our right), walked out a short distance and there were 15-20 SNOWY EGRETS in the marsh along with 1 GLOSSY IBIS. We retraced our route back over the Whitehaven Ferry 

A quick stop at Revastico Pond (WIC) yielded Barn, Tree and (1) Rough-winged Swallows. We saw several Bonaparte's Gulls, Blue-winged Teals, Lesser Yellowlegs, N Shovelers at Hurlock Sewage Treatment ponds. The original reasons to go there were for Bonaparte's Gull (for Kathy - successful)) and look for a N. Rough-winged Swallow for me. Despite looking through about 1 Barn and 500 Tree Swallows and several Purple Martins we failed to find one.

Our last stop on the way home was at Tanyard (Caroline County) as the sun was setting. There were Dunlin, Greater Yellow-legs, 1 Lesser-yellowlegs, several Wilson's Snipe and both Green-winged and Blue-winged Teal. 

Two other notes about the day. Kathy and I felt that we saw alot more Blue-winged Teal in one day than we could remember. This included 16 in the pond off of Messick Rd (Somerset). We also saw single Wild Turkeys in Wicomico, Somerset and Dorchester Counties. We both had a great but windblown day!

Jim Green
Gaithersburg, MD

work in moderation, BIRD IN EXCESS!!!

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