Hi All, 

I am always impressed with the southern Dorchester County landscape with its scattered pine groves and golden grass wetlands. The place in my experience that comes closest to it is the "Pine Ridge" savanna of Belize. The birds of Dorchester County were impressive as well on yesterday's Kent County Bird Club trip. We had 84 total species including 24 waterfowl, 12 raptor species (counting vultures & owls), and many local specialties.

We met Bob Ampula of Lovely Cove at the Dollar General at 7:05 AM and headed south after a short wait in hopes of more participants. We took a short detour in search of the elusive Northern Shrike at Pickering Creek in Talbot County. No luck with the shrike. Our Pickering Creek highlights were a Northern Harrier, a female kestrel hanging out by the kestrel-box beyond the impoundments, a Sharp-shinned Hawk hunting low within the marsh, 30 Green-winged Teal, 6 Northern Pintail, 12 Swamp Sparrows, and 1 WILSON'S SNIPE.

Upon arrival in Cambridge we birded the waterfront finding 10 waterfowl species including the drake EURASIAN WIGEON at Great Marsh Park along with lots of Surf Scoters, Long-tailed Ducks, Canvasbacks, and 8 BLACK SCOTERS.

Blackwater was in excellent form producing 42 species and thousands of waterfowl including 3000 Snow Geese - 250 of them blue geese; over 300 Common Mergansers; our first BLUE-WINGED TEAL for the year; our only Gadwall of the day (where were they on Elliott Island?); over 40 Northern Shoveler; about 400 Green-winged Teal; 10 Ring-necked Ducks; over 600 Tundra Swans; and 10 Hooded Mergansers. Landbirds on the Marsh Edge Trail and the wooded part of the Wildlife Drive included 8 Brown-headed Nuthatches, both kinglets, a WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH; a Pileated Woodpecker; 4 Brown Creepers; and a gorgeous red-morph screech-owl sitting on the doorstep of its Wood Duck-box. Bald Eagle numbers came in at 41 and harriers at seven. Non-bird highlights were a somewhat low-key wood frog and chorus frog concert, and a single Delmarva fox squirrel.

Along Best Pitch Ferry Rd. we had another WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH (numbers have been elevated on the E. Shore this winter); a road-killed Gray Catbird; several towhees; a young male Cooper's Hawk; an adult male Red-shouldered Hawk hunting the roadside ditch; 6 more eagles and 3 more harriers.

On Elliott Island on the southbound trip we had 125 Common Mergansers on Savanna Lake; 2 light morph ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS including a "typical" black-bellied bird and an adult male near the Green I. Hunt Club; several Savannah Sparrows on the road shoulders; 2 Hooded Mergansers; 9 more Bald Eagles; and 10 Northern Harriers. At Elliott Landing we had 420 Ruddy Ducks; 2 Double-crested Cormorants; and 6 BOAT-TAILED GRACKLES. At this point Bob had to leave Nancy, Ian and I. We birded a bit more in Elliott and found a Fox Sparrow in a thicket in town. As we headed back north we saw 350 Fish Crows streaming south over the marsh to some evening roost down near Elliott and enjoyed the spectacular evening light shooting under the clouds turning the marsh firey gold. At Green Island Hunt Club we saw the adult male Rough-leg again, as he hunted just west of the road along Pokata Creek he caused two SHORT-EARED OWLS to rise from the marsh to move him along, and just north of the Hunt Club we saw another SHORT-EAR hunting the marsh to the east in the dying sunset light. As a cap to the day we saw a lone American Woodcock zip across the road on US-50 at Vienna. T'was a lovely day of birding, now back to work.

Good Birding,

Walter Ellison

23460 Clarissa Road
Chestertown, MD 21620
phone: 410-778-9568
e-mail: 

"A person who is looking for something doesn't travel very fast" - E. B. White (in "Stuart Little")

"Are there *ever* enough birds?" - Connie Hagar as quoted by Edwin Way Teale in "Wandering through Winter"