I went kayaking after work today, putting in at Jackson Landing (Jug Bay) and heading north to Western Branch and a short way into the marsh.  The weather was spectacular.  Unfortunately, my after work timing coincided with high tide, but I still heard lots of marsh birds.  Soras were present in the marsh in big numbers the whole way.  I could hear the birds calling in the marsh during most of the time I was kayaking.  A very conservative count gave me at least 17 different birds, and I heard 4 or 5 birds calling simultaneously several times.  I also heard one Virginia Rail.  

When I went into the marsh off Western Branch, at one point I was surrounded by cattails and wild rice marsh and Soras were calling seemingly all around me.  I was enjoying the Soras, brilliant blue skies and great weather when suddenly a juvenile Northern Harrier burst into view, just above the level of the vegetation.  When it saw me, it wheeled around almost 360 degrees and headed back in the opposite direction.  

Other birds present included 5 or 6 Forster's Terns, 50+ Laughing Gulls, 1 Ring-billed Gull, 1 Greater Yellowlegs, Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons, and several cormorants.  Waterfowl consisted only of Wood Ducks, Mallards and a few Mallard x Black Duck hybrids.

Fred Shaffer

Crofton, Anne Arundel