Hi All,

It took awhile, but we finally had our first eastern Maryland BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE this morning; one visited our backyard feeders at Chespeake Landing (7 mi NW of Chestertown) around breakfast time. I was surprised how obvious the differences were after all of the years of living with this species in New England and upstate New York and only having four years of regular exposure to Carolina Chickadee. Among the features observed: the larger black bib with a messy lower margin; the pure white running from the cheek (auriculars) to the black nape; the white greater wing coverts; the greenish tinge of the mantle; the richer buff on the lower flank; and the longer tail with more prominent white edging. It looked pretty much like a New England bird in comparison to the western Maryland birds we have seen in recent years. Insofar as Nancy and I could tell this was a single bird, but we'll be looking harder from now on.

Yesterday Nancy and I took some time yesterday afternoon looking for swallows. Sadly there were no swallows around. We had an American Coot and 5 RUSTY BLACKBIRDS at Great Oak Pond as well as 170 Ruddy Ducks and 4 late Lesser Yellowlegs. At Eastern Neck NWR there was a Pied-billed Grebe (at Bogle's Wharf), 52 Common Loons on the Chester River off Bogle's, 160 Forster's Terns, and 200 Lesser Scaup (numbers finally building). 

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"