Elliott Island Road and Assateague State Park

Another early morning start from our Salisbury base to find Seaside Sparrow and Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow along Elliott Island Road (top right and bottom left). A superb morning to be out in the marshes with innumerable damsleflies, a lot of marsh wrens, a few Seaside and one Saltmarsh Sparrows and a couple of heard Virginia Rails, and a dear little fledgling Willet.

After a well-earned iced coffee on the drive out, we walked back up the beach (somewhat further than yesterday, to seek out the Piping Plovers (pic), an endangered species for which parts of Assateague are closed for nesting. We had a Lesser Black-backed Gull pointed out to us by some passers-by more knowledgeable than us.  While looking out to sea in the hope of a storm petrel, I happened upon a Black Scoter and a pod of Dolphins (probably Bottlenose, if the internet is to be believed).