Greetings!

-Just wanted to share some new arrival dates (personal first-of-the-season birds for me) for Harford and Cecil Counties.  Also some other random notes and latish-dates for birds I didn’t expect to run into today.  

I haven’t really done any serious birding, so these are kind-of casual observations that I've made.  Most of my few Cecil notes consist of observations made while leaving for work in the morning while my Harford notes are what I’ve seen while traversing the roads at work. 

Cecil County (North East, MD –Home)
April 14th
North Parula –I believe this is the same bird that has nested in our yard every year for the past four or five years. ...shows up in mid-April and has a slightly off (unique) quality to its song -been singing daily since its arrival.

House Wren –A male continues to sing daily from the wood line behind our boat. Last year a pair nested in one of our boxes only to fall victim to a hungry black rat snake. 

Eastern Phoebe –A pair has been around since early March and have once again successfully nested on a ledge under our bedroom's Juliet balcony 40 feet above the backyard. For the first time, I noted the nest's eggs (6) by peering through the cracks in the balcony’s deck boards.   

Yellow-rumped Warbler –They have been seen and heard almost daily -One of the prettiest (IMO) warblers when it’s decked out in its springtime regalia. 


April 15th
Bonaparte’s Gull -Twelve on the North East River at the mouth of Cara Cove: loosely associating with a group of Ring-billed Gulls. One of which was decked out with a full black hood. 

Osprey –Nearly every available nesting area is occupied. The nest at the end of my in-law’s dock has eggs: as do many others, I am sure.  

April 18th
Chimney Swift  -Three flying above Main Street in North East. 



Harford County (Edgewood Area of APG –Work)\
April 7th
Common Yellowthroat –FOS two birds singing

April 16th
Common Loon –Four husky birds loafing on the bay south of Poole’s Island

White-eyed Vireo –One heard singing 

Caspian Tern –Three or four birds foraging the shores of the Gunpowder River

Greater Yellowlegs –Two: it is very dry all over. Shorebirds have been hard to come by here.  

Pine Warbler –Many singing throughout the installation for weeks now

Yellow-rumped Warbler –(same as above)

Swallows –The Barn and Tree variety are all over the place!

April 19th (today)
I spent a good deal of time this morning paying attention to what was out there. Subsequently, I ended up with a decent size list of spring arrivals, and winter departures as well as summer residents. Most notably were the arrivals of Forster's Tern, Ovenbird and Orchard Oriole. The OROR was a lone male singing –a nice surprise! I had at least 5 Ovenbirds singing from various locales. Two Forster’s Terns were found foraging out in the Gunpowder River. Other notables on the River and bay were 15 Caspian Tern and three Common Loons off of the southern tip of Gunpowder Neck. 

I found the White-eyed Vireo that I has two days ago and discovered that it had been joined by two more for a total of three WEVIs. Yellow-rumped and Pine Warbler were here too as were the now ubiquitous Blue-gray Gnatcatchers that seem as noisy and numerous as the Tree and Barn Swallows.  Speaking of swallows, I added three Northern Rough-winged Swallows to the day’s tally. 

Today was a seven sparrow day –not too bad for “not-really-trying!” Numerous singing Swamp Sparrows, a Field Sparrow, numerous Chipping Sparrows, loads of haunting White-throated Sparrows, four or five Song Sparrows a couple of Juncos, and a few Towhees rounded out the list. Also a lone singing Northern Waterthrush, and many Common Yellowthroat (20+) singing out at various spots. The waterthrush, yellowthroat, ovenbird, when added to my early morning parula (yard bird), gave me a six warblers for the day(!). The other two being Yellow-rumped and Pine, of course... 

Other high family counts included woodpeckers with Red-bellied Woodpeckers being the winner in total numbers (16). A few Downy Woodpeckers, one Hairy, four Pileated and THREE RED-HEADEDs rounded out the woodpeckers. One of the Red-headed Woodpeckers was a lone adult bird near the southern tip of Gunpowder Neck. The other two have been seen consistently since last fall. in the same 50 yard stretch of forst (Gunpowder neck near Maxwell Point). Adults now, they were “sub-adult” when I first noticed them last fall. It has been fun to watch them molt into stunningly attractive adult birds over the winter (new nesters?): I’ll be keeping an eye on them for sure. 

Some winter hold-outs included a Hermit Thrush that was staring me down at one point (late?) as well as six Ruby-crowned Kinglets that kept together as they foraged among the myrtles and gnatcatchers.

Given the nice variety of expected birds, the surpirse oriole and other FOS birds, and the fun-to-see "winter birds," I was hoping to run across a Catbird, and/or a Great-crested Flycatcher, but they'll have to wait till tomorrow, I suppose.  

Lastly, I was surprised to find a family of Canada Goose waddling around a flooded, but quickly shrinking (drying), beaver pond: two adult birds with 6 downy young that looked to be at least a week old.

I finished the day with 69 species.

Good Birding!
Chris Starling
North East, MD        

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