Hi Folks,

The Kent Bird Club spent a blustery below freezing day along the blue 
Atlantic on Sunday the 23rd.

Our first stop was Ocean City Inlet which held a fine array of the usual 
unusual suspects. These included 16 COMMON EIDER featuring two adult 
drakes; all three scoters (only one drake White-winged); both loons, a 
young GREAT CORMORANT; 2 drake Lesser Scaup (odd location for them); 3 
oystercatchers; 50 Purple Sandpipers; 25 Ruddy Turnstones; and 6 
Bonaparte's Gulls.

At Hooper's we were treated to 300 Brant, spectacular when they flushed 
and wheeled about gargling and whiffling; 2 adult LESSER BLACK-BACKED 
GULLS were among the Herring Gulls on the north end of Skimmer I.; 
shorebirds included an oystercatcher, a Sanderling; 60 Dunlin; and 2 
Black-bellied Plovers. The presence of 3 Gadwall and 2 Northern 
Shovelers were indicative of the freeze-up of coastal fresh water ponds. 
We also saw three harbor seals hauled out on one of the islands off 4th 
Street from the Ocean City side.

We then made a tour of the many mostly frozen ponds of Berlin. At West 
Ocean City Pd. there were lots of Canada Geese and 280 Mallard and just 
a smattering of pintail, Canvasback, Gadwall, 2 American Wigeon, and a 
shoveler. The Eagles nest Golf Course pond had 22 shoveler, 9 American 
Wigeon, and (lo and behold on this freezing day) a TREE SWALLOW. There 
were 70 Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warblers in the waxmyrtle along the road 
beyond the pond (the swallow would be using the waxy fruit as well). 
Bayside Development Pd. had 25 Ring-necked Ducks; 25 wigeon; 15 Gadwall; 
5 REDHEAD (1 drake, 4 hens); and 2 Hooded Mergansers as well as a 
Cooper's Hawk; a Killdeer; and 4 bluebirds. The big Ocean Pines Pd. had 
50 Canvasback; 15 REDHEADS; 40 Ring-necked Ducks; 12 shovelers; and 14 
Hooded Mergansers. Of interest was a hybrid GreylagXCanada Goose trying 
to fool us into calling it a white-fronted goose.

We also visited the Castaways Campground on the shores of Sinepuxent Bay 
and had 400 more Brant -- equally spectacular to the Hooper's flock when 
flushed by the three local Bald Eagles; 40 American Wigeon; 500 Dunlin 
(mostly on flats on Assateague I.); 10 Black-bellied Plovers; 2 WESTERN 
WILLETS (one very close); and a GREATER YELLOWLEGS (seen by a few). Our 
trip list came to a very respectable 69, especially considering we 
ignored dickie birds for the most part, including 22 waterfowl and nine 
shorebirds.

Good birding,

Walter Ellison & Nancy Martin

23460 Clarissa Rd
Chestertown, MD 21620

phone: 410-778-9568

e-mail: rossgull(AT)baybroadband.net

Observing Nature is like unwrapping a big pile of presents every time 
you take a walk.