On Saturday (1/26/08) I visited some grassland areas in Carroll County looking for field birds. Among the birds seen were:

Red-tailed Hawk  11, scattered around in ones and twos
Kestrel  4
Screech Owl  1, Nusbaum Rd answering as it often does during the day from across Big Pipe Creek
Horned Lark  2 on Wakefield Rd, 40 on Jasontown Rd

I also stopped at Cranberry Reservoir where there were:

Canada Goose  55
Black Duck  1
Mallard  20
Ring-necked Duck  5
Goldeneye  1
Ring-billed Gull  12

In the evening I visited Liberty Lake at the end of Oakland Road and saw:

Canada Goose  325
Black Duck  10
Mallard  70
Ring-necked Duck  20
Bufflehead  1, Baltimore only
Hooded Merganser  25
Common Merganser  110
Pied-billed Grebe  4
Bald Eagle  1 immature
Coot  3, Baltimore only
Ring-billed Gull  1,200
Herring Gull  1
Sapsucker  1, Carroll only

On Sunday (1/27/08) with Bill Ellis I covered NE Frederick County for the winter count there. Among our interesting sightings were:

Common Merganser  11, eight flying over and three on the Monocacy which was partly open
Great Blue Heron  4, including our first bird of the day, standing on the icy Monocacy at Bridgeport
Bald Eagle  1 immature, flying N along Sixes Road, an unexpected new bird in this territory
Kestrel  21, our usual high total in this area
Gulls  0, always a highlight
Short-eared Owl  1, thanks to John Hubbell for finding this bird the day before in our territory
Red-headed Woodpecker  2 adults on Bridgeport Road
Horned Lark  10, not very many for all those fields
White-breasted Nuthatch  21, a high number for this area of mostly fields
Robin  91
Savannah Sparrow  1, Shriver Road, rare here in winter
White-crowned Sparrow  142, our usual high total here, including 1 im Gambel's seen briefly
Purple Finch  17, scattered in several places including some adult males
House Sparrow  380, doing well at dairy farms, fifty+ at several places

--
Bob Ringler 
Eldersburg MD