Dorchester County, Maryland.  Saturday, April 29, 2006.  Clear. 
Temperatures 46 - 65 - 54.  A cool, even cold, day.  Winds:  N or NE 10
-15- 20.  Visibility good, becoming excellent.  Ground:  drying.  90
species.  Landbirding difficult with the wind.

Blackwater N.W.R.  7:30 A.M. - 3 P.M.  8 of us on the bird walk including
Joy La Prade, Sarah Richardson & Gregor Fahrendorf, Kate Murphy & Arnold
Simon.  70 species including:

2 Common Loons.  14 Green-winged & 8 Blue-winged teal.  16 Ospreys.  2
kestrels (Egypt Road).   1 Sora.  1 Virginia Rail.  1 Black-bellied & 5
Semipalmated plovers.  1 Solitary & 50 Least sandpiper.  1 Short-billed
Dowitcher.  5 Caspian, 22 Forster's & 5 Least terns.  4 Chimney Swifts.  1
hummingbird.  3 crested flycatchers.  12 Purple Martins (the nesting box at
the Visitor Center is well-patronized).  10 Pine Warblers.  1 Ovenbird.  6
yellowthroats.  1 Summer Tanager.  1 Blue Grosbeak.  6 Orchard Orioles.  

Mammals:  4 rabbits, 1 Fox Squirrel (on the Wildlife Drive road that exits
to Key Wallace Drive), 1 Gray Squirrel.  Turtles:  10 Red-bellied Sliders,
12 Painted Turtles.  Butterflies:  18 Black Swallowtails, 1 Cabbage White,
2 Pearlcrescents, 1 Tiger Swallowtail, 1 Red-spotted Purple, 2 Spring
Azures.  
     
Elliott Island Road.  4 - 8:30 P.M.  Arnold, Kate & myself.  8 Great & 20
Snowy Egrets.  20 Green-winged & 4 Blue-winged Teal.  5 harriers.  1
Clapper Rail.  3 Common Moorhens at the Moorhen Spot, calling as well as
seen.  32 Lesser Yellowlegs.  6 Willets.  390 Dunlin.  1 snipe.  3
Black-necked Stilts.  4 Bonaparte's Gulls (at the McCready's Creek "inlet"
perched on the pilings).  35 Forster's & 7 Royal terns.  2 kingfishers.  1
Great Horned & 1 Barred owl.  3 kingbirds.  1 Marsh Wren.  8 Savannah
Sparrows.  6 Boat-tailed Grackles.  1 male House Finch (at the village). 
The marsh was very subdued with few marsh wrens or sparrows.    Also:  1
Red Fox near Savanna Lake.  A Fox Squirrel in the woods on Lewis Wharf
Road.  Bullfrogs calling at Cokeland.  A few Spring Peepers nearby. 
Otherwise, frogs silent on this cool, windy, drying day.  

BALD EAGLE.  c. 58 today.  A great show, many of them desporting themselves
up high in the winds and tangling with each other.  22 at Blackwater.  15
in sight simultaneously at the Bestpitch-Transquaking River bridge.  21
along Elliott Island Road. 

A person I spoke to Friday night, from Morris Arboretum in Philadelphia,
said the plants are c. 10 days early this spring.  The Eastern Shore looks
the same way to me with Wisteria, domestic irises, azaleas, and Paulownia
already blooming, sycamores and Black Locusts well along to leafing out. 

Rigby's Folly, Armistead property on Ferry Neck, Talbot County, MD, near
Bellevue.  1 mouse in the house traps since last weekend.  4 Painted
Turtles in the little depression in Woods 4 on Sun. April 30 as I was
leaving.

Best to all.-Harry Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA
19119-1225.  215-248-4120.  Please, any off-list replies to: 
harryarmistead at hotmail dot com  (never, please, to 74077.3176 ....)