Mid-Atlantic Christmas Vacation Yields 2 Statebirds, December 22, 29, 2025

A trip to the Mid-Atlantic states for the Christmas holidays presented the opportunity to chase after a few new statebirds nearby.  Since I grew up in the area, I have good state lists in all the states in the region.  But there are almost always at least a few possible new statebirds not too far away. 

Now it was time for some research.  We were based in Baltimore, so that meant no less than 5 states plus the District of Columbia would be no more than an hour away.  I pulled up my Needs Alerts for MD, PA, DE, VA, WV, and DC and came up with several reasonable possibilities –

PA – A Rufous Hummingbird was reliably visiting a feeder in Landenberg just across the state line

DC- Several waterfowl including Ross’s and Snow Geese, Goldeneye, and Long-tailed Duck had been seen recently, along with Harrier and Iceland Gull.  Though none were necessarily very reliable.  Plus, there was a Snowy Owl report.  

VA – Trumpeter Swans are reliable in Fauquier County right along our route back to NC.  That one could wait till our trip home.

My first opportunity to break away was the afternoon of the 22nd which was just enough time for what would hopefully be a short visit to Landenberg, PA in Chester County to look for the Rufous Hummingbird.  Luckily multiple eBird reports included all the necessary details – the feeder was in the back yard at the end of the driveway, the bird visited the feeder frequently (every 10-15 minutes), and it was not necessary to get prior permission from the homeowner. 

I arrived just after 2 PM, and walked to the end of the driveway.  The hummingbird feeder was right in front of me, along with a couple seed feeders.  The yard was quite birdy with a number of sparrows and chickadees on and below the seed feeders.  But of course, I concentrated on the hummer feeder as I waited for my target bird.  After an increasingly tense 15-minute wait the Rufous finally flew into the top of a small tree near the feeder.  And a few seconds later it landed on the feeder for a long drink providing great views.  It was #244 for my PA list. 

My statebird map for Rufous Hummingbird is inserted below.  The light blue shaded states are those where I’ve seen this species in its regular range.  The cross-hatched states are the states where I’ve yet to see it in its regular range.  And the 8 dark blue shaded states are those where I’ve seen Rufous Hummingbird as a rarity, now including PA. 

The summary of my DC trip on the 23rd is a short one since I didn’t find any of my targets.  That was despite sorting through at least 1,500 Canada Geese on the Langston Golf Course unsuccessfully looking for white geese.  And checking all the waters around Hain’s Point for unusual waterfowl, Harriers, and gulls.  That might be the first time I've had an extended birding trip and not found any of my multiple targets. 

I also kept my eyes open for Snowy Owls as I birded in the area.  Numerous birders reported a Snowy Owl the next day on the grounds of Washington National Airport.  Interestingly, the location listed on many of the reports was Hain’s Point in DC where the birders were standing, even though all the airport property is in VA.  My rule is that the location needs to be where the bird is, not where the birder is.  (I didn’t need Snowy Owl on my VA list since I’ve seen one in VA – in fact at Washington National - a few years ago.)

I may have missed my target birds in DC, but still had some nice scenery.

My last targets were Trumpeter Swans in Fauquier County in northern VA.  This species is always on my VA needs alerts, especially in this county.  So this area must be a regular hotspot for them.  I chose Sky Meadows State Park as our spot to try for them since they seemed to be quite reliable there recently, and it was only a few minutes off our route home on the 29th.  (Afterall, it’s always important to find my target birds quickly when I was with my NBS - non-birding spouse.)  As we pulled into the State Park entrance we looked to the right at small Turner Pond and instantly spotted a pair of Trumpeter Swans feeding in the middle.  That was easy!  Here’s a picture of Turner Pond with the Swans toward the back left. 

Trumpeter Swan was #277 for my VA list.  And VA was the 22nd state where I’ve seen this species, which is being re-introduced into much of its former breeding range.

A Not-Too-Cooperative Trumpeter Swan, Newville, Pennsylvania, May 25, 2021

A late May and early June 2021 trip to the Mid-Atlantic and New England states gave me an opportunity to add a few species to my statelists in the region.  Although the primary focus was to visit relatives, there’s always time to squeeze in at least a little birding.  Since I used to live in the area my statelists there are pretty good, but there are usually at least a few targets to hope for – often there is a rarity or 2 that might be around when I’m in town, and occasionally a few remaining regular species that I haven’t yet run into. 

The first stop was in south-central PA, so I set up an eBird Needs Alert for that state prior to our visit.  Lots of “needs” popped up, though of course PA is a large state.  So with limited time I had to narrow the list down to the nearby counties.  A few of the less common but regular migrants were on the list, but they would surely move on by the time I arrived.  Instead, my attention went to nearly daily reports of Trumpeter Swans in Newville in Cumberland County.  It was a nesting pair in a small marsh along a public road in Newville, back for at least their second consecutive year.  It would be a bit of a drive so it would be my only birding stop for the visit.  But since they sounded like a pretty reliable pair of birds, it seemed like the right target to pursue. 

I was out of the house early on May 25 but was slowed by an accident along my route.  The delay meant I’d only have a few minutes to look for the birds but I wasn’t too concerned.  When I finally arrived at the marsh I pulled up slowly to this nice wetlands, fully expecting to almost instantly see 1 or 2 large white birds with a quick scan. 

But there were no white birds to be seen.  I drove the length of the marsh not once, but twice, and still didn’t see the Swans.  I pulled over on the shoulder and got out for a closer inspection.  Despite several binocular scans I still couldn’t find the Swans.

I was thinking of giving up when I noticed a car driving up toward me slowly.  My first thought was he was going to confront me for trespassing (even though I was on the shoulder of a public road).  But then the optimist in me thought wouldn’t it be nice if he was actually coming to help me find the Swans.  He got out of the car and greeted me with “Are you looking for the Swans?”  He was the owner of the farm across the road and had watched the Swans fly out of the marsh just a few minutes earlier.  But he said not to worry, they were just out feeding – they usually head to the large pond just to the west - and typically come back in about 20 minutes. 

That was all very heartening, but I had run out of time.  I waited a couple more minutes at the marsh, and then decided to try to see them at the pond.  I had driven by the pond on my way to the marsh and noticed that there were only limited views of the water through the vegetation.  But it was still worth the try.  I started driving slowly by the pond and just as I got to the first opening there was a Swan flying by (with a black bill eliminating a Mute Swan) heading toward the marsh.  I quickly turned around and got back to the marsh just in time to see the Swan heading off to the north over the farm fields.  Not the most satisfying of views but good enough.  And good thing that the farmer came by to talk to me – without his information I probably would have left before it returned.

When I lived in the Mid-Atlantic through the early 1990s the only Swan species in the area were Tundras (formerly Whistling) and Mutes.  Trumpeters had been extirpated from most of its former range, including the entire eastern portion of its range, by the late 1800’s.  But several reintroduction programs across the US and in Canada have successfully brought Trumpeter Swans back to the area.  And even in some cases to areas where they weren’t likely present originally.  More details can be found at this website – www.trumpeterswansociety.org

Trumpeter Swan was #243 for my PA list.  In my statebird map below, the blue states are those where I’ve seen this species in its regular range, and the tan states are those where I’ve seen it outside its normal range.  At least that’s based on range maps in recent field guides - Trumpeters are now more likely through many states outside of the ranges shown in the guides.  Lastly the cross-hatched states are those in its range where I’ve yet to see this species.

Filling Gaps in Mid-Atlantic State Lists, January 2019

Trips to visit relatives in the Mid-Atlantic states can provide me opportunities to add statebirds in multiple states.  But since I grew up in the area, my lists are already pretty good, so possibilities are likely to be limited to less common species.  With a January trip to visit relatives in southern PA and northern DE, I set up eBird Needs Alerts for PA, DE, and MD.  Multiple opportunities popped up, but most were too far away to chase after given what would end up being pretty limited available time.  After culling through the reports I was left with just three possibilities – American Pipit in PA, and Ring-necked Duck and Painted Bunting in DE.  Now I just had to try to figure out how to squeeze in enough time to go after them.

The first stop on the trip was to south-central PA.  My PA list was 241, the smallest total of all the Mid-Atlantic states, so not surprisingly I had the greatest number of opportunities in this state.  But only the American Pipit was “nearby”.  That is if a 90-minute drive could be considered to be “nearby”.  Multiple Pipits had been reported for some time at a farmfield location near Shippensburg along with Horned Larks and Killdeer, with an occasional Lapland Longspur spotted for good measure.  The site was simply listed as “Mud Level Road”.  And with no specific site mentioned, I assumed there would be one field that might be of particular interest to these prairie birds, perhaps one that was recently manured.  So my plan was to get to Mud Level Road and look for the location that was most appealing to these species.  I only had about 20 minutes available at the site so I crossed my fingers that I would be able to find the right spot quickly.

Although the ground was clear when I left my in-laws’ house in Shrewsbury, I began to notice more patches of snow as I headed north.  Then as I got to Harrisburg the ground was covered in snow or ice from a recent storm.  I began to worry that the field where the Pipits and others had been feeding would now be covered, and the birds would now be dispersed.  In fact, I thought about just turning around and heading back, but figured since I had come this far I may as well give it a try.

As I neared Mud Level Road I saw a large expanse of farmfields, mostly planted in corn in 2018.  That was a lot of great habitat for these prairie birds.  BUT – everything was covered in several inches of snow and/or ice.  I started to think that now my best opportunity to find a Pipit was to search along the edges of roads where a snow plow had exposed a small area of dirt.  And just after I thought about this “Plan B” I came upon 4 birds feeding at the road edge.  But all 4 were Horned Larks.  How many miles would I need to drive to find a Pipit?  With just 20 minutes to look, maybe I could cover 10 miles.  Certainly a needle-in-a-haystack kind of proposition.

I arrived at the GPS coordinates given for the Mud Level Road hotspot and continued to see fields covered in snow and ice.  I drove a bit to the west and just found more of the same and nothing along the road edges.  I pulled over in a small parking lot to try to figure out what to do next.  Luckily I had my window down because I heard several “whit” calls of Horned Larks somewhere nearby.  But with a quick scan I still only saw snow and ice.  Where were those Larks?  

I turned around and headed back to the east and soon noticed a small area in a flooded field to the north that was not frozen (maybe it was spring fed?).  I quickly pulled over and before I could even pick up my binocs I heard the two-note calls of an American Pipit nearby.  With a glance toward the direction of the calls I spotted 4 Pipits feeding nearby among the stubble.  But that was amidst all the ice and snow.  So I next looked over to the wet area and found even more Pipits.  I estimated a total of 25 Pipits, along with 2 Horned Larks.  Not to mention 15 Killdeer that were walking around the area.  And with a closer scope view I spotted 4 Wilson’s Snipe hunkered down in this tiny wetlands.  Apparently all these birds had concentrated in this single area of exposed habitat.  I felt very satisfied that my search had been successful especially given that virtually the entire area was covered in snow and ice.

American Pipit was #242 for my PA list.  Although certainly not a rarity, it is typically seen in the Mid-Atlantic states as a migrant over a narrow window of time, so it can be difficult to add to your state lists unless you happen to be visiting at the right time.  Or if you get lucky enough to find them concentrated in a tiny patch of habitat in mid-winter.  In my statebird map below, the dark-shaded states are those where I’ve seen American Pipit; the 5 cross-hatched states are the last ones where I I still need this species though it is a regular migrant.  I guess I need to spend some more time birding the Midwest and Plains during Pipit migration seasons.

Next it was on to my visit in DE, and the Painted Bunting and Ring-necked Duck targets.  Obviously the frequency of these 2 species in the area is very different - Painted Bunting is quite a rarity while the Ring-necked Duck is rather common in migration and winter.  (I have to ask myself how come I hadn’t seen such a common species in a state in which I had birded extensively.)  The Bunting was coming to several feeding stations along a suburban road near Newark, within 20 minutes of where I was staying.  But the bird was only semi-reliable, with some birders having to wait several hours to see the bird.  Plus who knows how many others were not successful in their searches as negative results are rarely posted.  My birding time would be very limited, and I would be taking my non-birding spouse along with me.  So given the potential challenges in seeing the bird, not to mention likely comments from my wife while I stared at the feeders waiting for it to appear, I had to pass on trying for the Bunting.  

That left the Ring-necked Ducks which were also seen nearby, this time quite reliably at Dragon Run Marsh.  I had tried for this species at this same location back in April 2017, but was a bit too late in spring migration for it that time.  But on this visit I was right in the middle of its normal time to be seen in DE.  And one recent post mentioned seeing Ring-necks right from the road.  So I was quite optimistic I could quickly find this species this time around.  

But there was one other challenge the morning we headed out - it was pouring down rain with flood watches and warnings throughout the area.  As we drove down Route 9 and neared the bridge over Dragon Run Marsh we were in a deluge.  This would be fun!  While still sitting in the car I tried a quick binoc scan of the marsh to the west, but with the terrible visibility and rain pelting the windows I couldn’t see a thing.  So I hopped out and stood under the open tailgate to try again.  This time I could see a small number of ducks in the distance but they were just Mallards or Blacks.  Next I got out the scope and l quickly spotted two Aythya ducks which luckily I could just barely ID through the pouring rain as Ring-necked Ducks.  A 2-minute stop for one statebird – can’t get much more efficient than that even if the target is a pretty common species.

And speaking of common species - I had 2 key reasons to try to add Ring-necked Duck to my DE list – not only was it another “tick” for my DE statelist (#276), but DE was the last state in the continental US that I still needed this species.  Ring-necked Duck is now the 25th species I’ve seen in all the Lower 48 states, plus DC, plus Alaska.  In other words, my statebird map below is all shaded in.

I have also seen 15 other species in all the Lower 48 states and DC but not in Alaska.  Though most of those species are not typically seen in AK.  Two examples of species in this group are Turkey Vulture and Mourning Dove.

All of these species have one key thing in common - they are quite common across the US.  Though it still might take multiple stops to find them, as was the case for my Ring-necked Duck in DE.

Sandhill Crane in Delaware and Redhead in Pennsylvania, April 2017

A short trip to visit relatives in the Mid-Atlantic states in April 2017 provided opportunities to try for at least a couple new statebirds.  As is typically the case on my trips I set up eBird Needs Alerts to look for possible targets.  But I typically don’t have a lot of birding time when visiting relatives so any birds that I could chase after would have to be close by. 

Our first stop was in northern DE, and although my DE state list was already pretty good at 274, my Needs Alert revealed two realistic possibilities.  The first was Sandhill Cranes that had been seen sporadically at the Ashton Tract of the Augustine Wildlife Area – just 20 minutes from our visit.  And nearby were several recent sightings of Ring-necked Duck, though it was getting quite late for this wintering species.  So my plan was to get out of the house pre-dawn, arrive at the Crane spot by dawn for a quick stop, then make a couple stops on the way back to try for the Ring-necks.

Right on schedule I was pulling into the parking area at the Augustine Wildlife Area at dawn.  There were a few sightings of up to 3 Cranes in this marsh over the last couple months, so I hoped that these birds might be nesting there.  The most recent sighting mentioned a calling bird heard “from the observation platform towards the left”.  I quickly found the observation platform which provided a nice panoramic view of this large freshwater marsh, and I started to scan hoping to find the birds foraging in the vegetation.  And all the while listening for their bugling calls.  But to no avail.

Then on my second scan I noticed two pairs of large birds in flight off in the distance.  Although far away and just using binoculars, I thought I could see the long outstretched necks and legs of Cranes.  But I needed to confirm the ID, so I quickly got them in my scope and they were indeed 4 Sandhill Cranes heading north away from the marsh.  I watched them for a few more seconds until they disappeared out of sight.  I’m guessing that they had been roosting in the marsh overnight and were heading out to feed somewhere else.  Boy was I lucky – not only in picking them up in the air in the distance, but if I had arrived just a few minutes later they would have already left the marsh for the morning. 

DE was my 35^th state for Sandhill Crane.  As a result my statebird map below still shows a lot of gaps for this expanding species.   

With that one quickly checked off, I did another scan of the marsh and began to pick out numerous Bald Eagles.  I counted at least 11 birds, including this group of 5 together.

 

Time was getting short, so I quickly headed off to a couple nearby spots where Ring-necked Ducks had been reported.  But I came up empty - my targets were most probably gone for the year.  Even though I missed my second target, I was happy to have seen the rarer of the 2, and happier still to arrive back just as everyone was getting up – no one even knew I had been out.

The family’s next stop was in south-central PA, and my PA Needs Alert revealed 2 nearby targets – a pair of Redheads and yet another Sandhill Crane.  The Redheads had been reported for some time in a small pond at the Chestnut Grove Natural Area, hanging out with Mallards.  Less than an hour away, my plan once again was to make this a very early morning stop, and then return back before I was missed.

I arrived at Chestnut Grove Natural Area just after dawn, and could see the pond where the Redheads had been reported in the distance.  After a short walk I neared the pond, but didn’t want to get too close in case the waterfowl flushed.  So I set up my scope and quickly scanned the water – no birds at all.  Then I noticed a couple Mallards resting on the shore.  I zoomed in and found 6 male Mallards together, along with the male Redhead.  A couple minutes later all 7 birds woke up and began to swim across the pond, when I got this barely passable phonescoped photo.

 

In my experience with dabblers, when you only see males together that means the females are off on their nests.  So I wondered if that would be the case with the Redheads as well.  But based on eBird records, the male Redhead was only spotted for 4 more days and the female was never spotted again at this location, so nesting was not likely.  PA was one of my last remaining gaps for this species – now I just need it in AR and IN.

 

Sandhill Crane was my last realistic PA target – one bird had been hanging out with a flock of Canada Geese in farmfields right along our route back home.  So we made a quick stop there on the way home at the end of our trip, and although we found the goose flock, the Crane was nowhere to be seen.  I’d have to be content with adding just one bird to my PA list – now at 241.

7 Statebirds in WV and 1 More in PA, May 2014

Since early in 2014 my work has required me take several trips to Pittsburgh which is a location I haven’t traveled to in quite some time.  Pittsburgh is only about a 90 minute drive from some good birding areas in northern WV, and since I’ve needed to work on my WV state list, of course I’ve squeezed in a bit of WV birding time on these trips.  I started 2014 right at the old ABA reportable threshold for WV.  And then with a trip in March, I added 8 new waterfowl even though I had just 1 hour of birding time.  Then with a late afternoon in April I added 3 more – putting me 11 over the old threshold.  My somewhat arbitrary goal is to be 15 over threshold in each state (to stay above that limit hopefully forever), so only 4 more to go.  My next trip was in early May quite well timed during passerine migration.  So I connected with my Morgantown, WV birding friend Terry Bronson and he developed a plan to help me find some of my possible statebirds.  I had a couple hours in the evening and much of the next morning for birding time, so I was hopeful that I could get maybe 2-3 new statebirds.

I met Terry near dinner time of the first day and he greeted me with his list from that morning – it had been a major fallout in Morgantown with 8 birds that would have been new for my statelist.  Unfortunately I was 12 hours too late.  But maybe some would stick around.  We went right to Core Arboretum where Terry had all his birds that morning, and began to retrace his tracks.  The first area was where he had had a Cape May, several Swainson’s Thrushes, and a Least Flycatcher, but we dipped on all three.  We did have the first of several Nashville Warblers there though - new statebird #1.  We continued to bird the park, finding a reasonable number of migrant warblers, but still missing all those great birds Terry had that morning.  We eventually made our way down to the river where Terry had his best bird of the morning – a Forster’s Tern – a nice bird for WV.  We hiked to the buoy in the river where it had perched that morning, and amazingly it was still there (#2).  I’ve now seen Forster’s throughout most of the country (see my statebird map below).

A little later we finally found one of the several Spotted Sandpipers Terry had had along the streambank (#3).  We ended the day with another unsuccessful try for Great Horned Owl (my nemesis bird in WV).  So although the 3 new statebirds were already what I had hoped for during the trip, we still missed 5 birds Terry had earlier in the day.

We started early the next morning to ominous skies, and decided to try Core Arboretum again to see if it had been another good migration night.  There were less birds there than the day before, but there were some migrants so we didn’t give up hope.  Then I noticed a large bird fly in – it was a Black-billed Cuckoo (#4).  WV was the last “hole” in the northeast part of my statebird map for Black-billed.

And a few minutes later we found a Swainson’s Thrush (#5) in the same area where Terry had them the day before.  We were still birding the park when it started to rain, and when a bolt of lightning hit the ground close nearby we headed back to the safety of the car.

We decided to make our way south to get away from the rain, and we headed to Pritchett Fort State Park.  There were almost no migrants there at all, but there was a nice collection of breeding species including great looks at Yellow-throated Warbler.

With just a couple more hours available before heading back to work, we decided to go to Little Indian Creek WMA, which is a reclaimed coal mine revegetated in grasses and some small emergent trees.  One of the targets Terry was hoping for here was Palm Warbler, and soon after reaching the park we found our target.  I had a brief glimpse of a warbler in the distance in some grasses flicking its tail, and after a little searching, we found not 1 but 2 western Palm Warblers (#6).  WV was my last eastern state for this species.

 

As we continued walking through this very birdy park, we noticed many tent caterpillar nests.  And soon we began to see and hear Black-billed Cuckoos.  Several times we watched them chowing down on big hairy caterpillars.  We conservatively estimated that we saw 3 birds, and along with the 4^th one at the arboretum, that was very likely more Black-billed Cuckoos than I’ve ever seen in one day.  Two different times we also saw female Prairie Warblers fly into a caterpillar nest, and gather the silk from the web for nesting material.  Very cool.

Our time was almost up so we headed back toward the car.  Although we were chatting along the way I faintly heard a brief call that sounded like Least Flycatcher.  But this area certainly is not a typical heavily wooded located for Least Fly.  Nonetheless, we stopped to listen, and both of us heard it call several more times (#7).  That was quite a surprise.  My statebird map for Least Flycatcher shows some big gaps in the southeast, though otherwise pretty good coverage across the country.

 

We ended our WV birding with 87 species, including 19 warblers, and most importantly, 8 new birds for my WV state list.  Way over my hoped for 2 or 3.  And with 196, my WV state list is 18 over the old ABA threshold an in theory secure for a long time to come.

As I was heading back to Pittsburgh I started to wonder if there might be any migrants I might need for my PA list.  I’ve got a pretty good list for PA since I lived there for 4 years, but after checking my lists I remembered that I still needed Nashville Warbler for PA.  And since we heard and saw several in WV, maybe that one might be feasible to try for in PA.  However, the first problem was that at most I could only squeeze in an hour or two of birding starting at dawn the next day.  Plus, since I had never birded in Pittsburgh, I’d have to find a good spot for migrants.  I looked on the map and found a small suburban park called Robin Hill Park that seemed nice and was nearby.  So I had a plan.

I arrived at Robin Hill Park just after dawn and was greeted with a singing Hooded Warbler – a nice start.  I then noticed some warblers feeding at the top of an oak tree, and after wading through some Yellow-rumps and Black-throated Greens I picked out a Nashville Warbler – success!  I ended up with 2 other Nashville’s over the next hour.  Now that I’ve seen Nashville in WV and PA, my statebird map pretty well matches the typical range map for this species, which is common in much of the country except the heart of the Rockies and the southeast.

I also got several warblers we didn’t have in WV, including a Bay-breasted that I didn’t need in PA but did need in WV.  Ugh!  I also got an Orange-crowned, which is a good spring bird in PA though not a new one for me.  That gives me 239 for my PA list.

Eurasian Collared-Doves in PA and MD, and White Ibis in PA, August 2012

A trip to visit relatives in PA and MD has to include at least a little birding time, right?  Of course it does for a "total ticker".  Though since I grew up in the area I've got pretty good lists for all the mid-atlantic states (and especially MD), and there's not much in the way of likely state birds.  I started off spending a little time checking the listserves and didn't see much to chase.  Then on to e-bird where I started to research Eurasian Collared-Doves - I need them for every mid-atlantic state except DE.  There has been a colony of ECDs in the little town of Shady Grove, PA for some time, and recent e-bird reports included up to 4 birds.  Plus there were a number of recent e-bird sightings of 1-2 birds just to the south across the stateline into MD.  Two possible statebirds within a 90 minute drive of the relatives - certainly critical mass and worth the try. 

I got up early on my first available morning only to find that it was raining heavily in the general vicinity of the doves.  So I decided to make that trip the next day.  But I had free time on my hands that morning before anyone else was awake.  What to do...  I checked the PA listserve and read that an immature White Ibis had been found the previous day just an hour away with pretty good local directions.  After a few minutes of looking at the map, I was off to the Susquehanna River a bit northeast of York to try for the ibis. 

The bird had been found in a small stream channel a short distance from the Susquehanna.  When I arrived I found some excellent riparian habitat along a small dirt road, and realized that the stream channel was at least a mile and half long.  And some of it was obscured by trees.  This could be a challenge.  I slowly drove along the channel 2 times checking at each opening in the trees, but with no luck.  A calling Screech Owl was a nice find though.  I decided to give it one last try, and as I reached the mouth of the channel I noticed a small wader on the rocks - it was the White Ibis.  Wonder where it was on my first 2 passes?  PA is now my 13th state for White Ibis (see the map below) - 8 southeast states in its normal range, along with 3 in the mid-atlantic and 2 in the northeast as a vagrant.

And the next day I was off for an early morning try for the ECDs.  After a pleasant drive through the beautiful PA countryside I neared the small town of Shady Grove, en route to Kline's Grocery in the middle of town which has been the center of dove activity.  One of the first birds I noticed on the eastern edge of town was a chunky dove on the wires - a most cooperative Eurasian Collared-Dove.  I drove a 1/2 mile to Kline's Grocery and had another 4 ECDs within just a couple minutes.  A nice colony of doves!

Next was a quick drive across the MD line to the small crossroads of Reidtown where ECDs had been reported this year.  Just 5 miles "as the dove flies" from Shady Grove, perhaps this is the beginnings of a satellite colony.  Soon after I arrived I found many Mourning Doves on the wires but no ECDs.  Then I noticed a dove in flight and got a brief view of a chunky square-tailed bird flying away.  A couple minutes later I saw the same bird in flight, and again at the same angle, as it flew off to the northwest out of sight.  I had wished for better views, but the bird didn't return in the next 2 hours.  So that would have to do to add Eurasian Collared-Dove to my MD list. 

Those are my 33rd and 34th states for ECD, with most being in the southeast and out west.  (I haven't birded in NM and MT since ECDs arrived there.)  And now I have them in MD, PA, DE, and VT in the northeast.  Just as it did in Europe, this species expands its range to the northwest before colonizing to the northeast.  And for statelists - that gives me 326 in MD and 238 in PA.