Hi everybody: 
     I started day two before daylight at Pickering Creek Audubon Center. Spurred on by hearing pre dawn A. Woodcocks in Baltimore County the previous day I was optimistic  that I would here them again but that was not to be the case. What was nice was hearing WILD TURKEYS gobbling in the woods and shortly after that my first of the year introduction to LAUGHING GULLS. There must have been several hundred that seemingly came out of nowhere and were flying and circling and "laughing" overhead for at least 30 minutes. I would run into them many more times throughout the day in a number of fields that are not listed below. I spent about an hour at Pickering Creek and then started making quick stops throughout Talbot, Caroline, Queen Anne's, and Howard  Counties before heading back to Gaithersburg. Below is an abridged synopsis of the day's finds. I tried to count lingering numbers of waterfowl at most locations.

Pickering Creek Audubon Center - TALBOT COUNTY
  Tundra swans  2     announcing themselves as they flew over 
  Green-winged Teal  13
  Bald Eagle  2
  Brown Thrasher  3
  Field Sparrows  5     singing away as the sun came up

Private ponds on Rt. 333 - TALBOT COUNTY
  Great Egret  1
  Mallard  12
  Gadwall  12
  Green-winged Teal  10
  N. Shoveler  26

Tanyard Bridge (Rt. 331) - CAROLINE COUNTY (close to high tide)
  Mallard  10
  Green-winged Teal  42
  Greater Yellowlegs   2
  Wilson's Snipe  25 (probably more)
  Herring Gull  2
  Laughing Gulls  several 100...impossible to count
  Forster's Tern  4

Barker's Landing Road - TALBOT COUNTY
  Bald Eagle  1
  Red-tailed Hawk  1
  A. Kestrel  1
  E. Phoebe  2
  Horned Lark  3

Easton Waste Water treatment Plant - TALBOT COUNTY
  Green-winged Teal  44
  N. Shoveler  90
  Ring-necked Duck  72
  Ruddy Duck  34
  Bonaparte's Gull  11
  
  I could not drive between the 2 ponds because the road was "littered" with Gulls...90% Laughing and a 10% mix of Ring-billed, Herring and Grt. black-backed.

Skeleton Creek - CAROLINE COUNTY
  Killdeer  1
  Greater Yellowlegs  5
  Chipping Sparrow  6

Poplar Neck Road - CAROLINE COUNTY
  Barn swallow  2 (FOY)
  Pine warbler  2

Denton Sewage Pond - CAROLINE COUNTY
  Ring-necked Duck  11
  Purple Martin  6  (FOY)
  Tree Swallow  15

Tuckahoe State Park CAROLINE & Q.A. COUNTIES (seen in both counties unless otherwise noted)
  Wood Duck  6
  Green-winged Teal  14
  Ruby-crowned Kinglet  1 (singing, in Caro. only)
  E. Towhee  2  (Caro. only)
  Rusty Blackbirds  60-70   When I walked the Caroline County trail close to the lake in the wet edges half were on the ground (actively feeding)and half in the trees (calling). After 5 minutes or so they flew off and split into small groups and scattered  with some going into Q. A. County. (a county bird for Caroline). It appeared to be a fairly equal mix of male and female Rusties from what I could see.

Rt. 481 pond (just North of Rt. 309 intersection) Q. A. COUNTY
  Green-winged Teal  24
  Greater Yellowlegs  1
  Lesser Yellow legs  2
  Wilson's Snipe  15
  Eastern Meadowlark  1

Driving North on Rt. 309  -  Pond north of Rt. 404 intersection - Q. A. CO.
  Green-winged Teal  29 
   Ring-necked Ducks  2
   A. Kestrel  1
  Greater Yellowlegs  1
  Lesser Yellowlegs  3
  Solitary Sandpiper  1  (FOY) It flew in while I was scanning and     several minutes later it was gone.
  Wilson's Snipe  2
  Eastern Meadowlark  2
 
On the opposite side of the road in a distant field was a sizable (at least 100) flock of Snow Geese.

Marshy pond on west side of Rt. 309 (continuing north) - Q. A. CO.
  Green-winged Teal  30
  Greater Yellowlegs  1
  Pectoral Sandpiper  2 (FOY)
  Savannah Sparrow  3

CEEC (Chesapeake Environmental Education Center) - There was a very nice assortment of waterfowl here.
  Common Loon  3
  Horned Grebe  1
  Mallard 21
  Black Duck  5
  Green-winged Teal  34
  N. Shoveler  4
  Canvasback  30
  Long-tailed Duck  12
  Surf Scoter  85
  Hooded Merganser  1
  Bufflehead  8
  Ruddy Duck    A huge raft of at least 3500; this is a conservative estimate.

HOWARD COUNTY - My last planned stop of the day was to try for the Harris's Sparrow. I arrived at about 4:10 and stood through an off and on misting. Two different times when it seemed like there was alot of bird activity around the feeders a COOPER'S HAWK flew in and perched for several minutes scattering all the birds. At 5:15 a FOX SPARROW flew in and landed on the ground.  Several minutes later the HARRIS'S SPARROW finally arrived picking and feeding for 5 minutes before flying off.  At one point I had both the Fox and Harris's Sparrow in the scope which presented verynice size comparisons between the two. 

Hopefully Nancy Magnusson will be able to see the sparrow over the weekend; she came and went (had a meeting to go to) while I was waiting for the Harris's to appear. (Both sparrows were county birds for me).

In order to avoid I-95 and the 495 Beltway I headed home via Rt. 216 (Scaggsville Rd.).  Near Fulton there is a private farm pond on the right side of the road (NO TRESSPASSING!). I was lucky enough to be backed up at a traffic light.  Sitting in traffic and waiting for a light to turn green I counted 34 BONAPARTE'S GULLS. There may have been more; my count was only those flying low over the pond that I could count from inside the car.

  Sorry For the late post for April 1st.

Jim Green
Gaithersburg, Md.

WORK IN MODERATION, BIRD IN EXCESS!!!