Hi Folks,

I spent an enjoyable afternoon kayaking the Little Gunpowder River and
vicinity with Bill Hubick and Ed Carlson yesterday (Wed. 6/23).  We
put in at US 40 around 3:30 in the afternoon, with the temp around 96
degrees.  The weather on the stream was quite pleasant, and we eased
our way downstream, occasionally extracting ourselves from the pebbles
of the sometimes shallow water.  While on the woodsy part of the river
we had singing WARBLING VIREO in both Baltimore and Harford Counties,
along with YELLOW WARBLER and PROTHONOTARY WARBLER in Harford.  When
we broke out of the woods and into open marshland we were pleasantly
surprised to find at least 8 LEAST TERNs and 7 MARSH WRENs in Harford
Co., with a few more of the terns in Balt. Co.  Paddling up into
Mariner Point Park in Joppatown we had an additional Warbling Vireo
and more Least Terns.

After more than three hours on the water, we loaded our kayaks on our
vehicles and headed over to Aberdeen Proving Ground (not open to
public).  As a military retiree, I had spent a fair amount of time
birding here because it has some exceptional habitat.  Things have
changed a lot in the past year as heavy construction is paving the way
for thousands of new jobs at the facility as part of the Base
Re-allignment and Closure program.  All roads in the vicinity of
Phillips Army Airfield are now closed, but just sitting outside the
gate to the facility we found a WILLOW FLYCATCHER on the fence, and
heard PRAIRIE WARBLERs, YELLOW WARBLERs and a CHAT.  We worked our way
around a lot of the new construction and finally found some non-closed
roads back to a wooded area where Harve-de-Grace Rd. meets Pistol Rd.
It is here that Elaine and I had found whips a few years ago, based on
some intel provided by Dave Webb.  It was still light out when the
three of us arrived so we walked around, listening to OVENBIRD,
SCARLET TANAGER, PEWEEs, ACADIAN FLYCATCHERs, and COPE'S GRAY
TREEFROGs.  As the evening progressed we began listening intently and
heard our first WHIP-POOR-WILL at 9:08 p.m., and heard two more before
leaving around 9:30.

By the way, while floating the Little Gunpowder we had a lot of
interesting odenates, including a Dragonhunter, many Amberwings,
bluets, whitetails, powderwing, Black Saddlebags, and others that
don't come readily to mind.

It was a very pleasant outing, minimizing the effects of the excessive heat.

Stan Arnold
Ferndale (AA Co.)