Catching up in May

To be honest keeping a blog up to date is more of a challange than I anticipated. I have fallen way behind in my posts so I will try to catch up on what has been going on in May. The month started with Jim Stasz and I doing an early Dorchester County May count on Taylor's Island. Harry Armistead has been conducting bird counts on the first and second weekend of every May for a very long time. For the past couple years I have been helping out on the count by canvasing Taylor's Island. Taylor's is located right on the Chesapeake Bay and is normally a great trap for migrant birds. But not this year. Jim and I only counted 95 species with only one migrant -- a Parula Warbler. Last year we had almost 120 species of birds. Fortunately I scored some major photos. The best being a Red-headed Woodpecker. Red-headed Woodpeckers are residents on the Eastern Shore but very uncommon and to see one is always exciting. Another exciting find was a Juniper Hairstreak. I have only seem one other Juniper Hairstreak so this was a great find. Unfortunately the pic isn't that great but it is identifiable. The next weekend I took a break from saving the grebe and participated in my third World Series of Birding in Cape May, New Jersey. The Maryland Ornithological Society sponsered our team the MOS Yellowthroats. We participate in the Cape May County only class and try to identify as many birds as possible in a 24 hour period from midnight Friday to midnight Saturday. We won our class this year with 184 species. It is an awesome feeling to stand in front of many of the top birders in the country and receive the trophy. After the hectic five days of the series it was nice to just go back to work and watch TV in the evening, but last weekend it all started again. Jim Stasz, Tom Field, Hans Holbrook, and myself hit the Nassawango and Nanticoke River areas hard in search of birds and bugs. Dragonflies and Damselflies were the stars of the weekend with the best being a male and female Furtive Forktail seen in Worcester and Wicomico Counties. These were the first documented sightings for Maryland constituting a new state record! Harlequin Darners, Cyrano Darners, Eastern Red Damsels, and Spaghnum Sprites were all documented for the big year. Another highlight from the weekend was a Bicknell's Thrush seen at Pusey's Bridge in Worcester County. Bicknell's Thrush are very difficult to identify if you don't hear their song. They are very similar in appearence to Gray-cheeked Thrush and only slight differences in plumage color and size separate the two species. We were able to study the thrush very well. It was a new state bird for me and a big plus for the photo big year. So we are now up to date. Now that things have settled down hopefully I will be a little more punctual with my posts.