If you don't try, you'll never know, so I went out this morning to Sands Road Park in southern AA Co to look for the Nelson's found on Monday by Stan.  I had a great morning but no luck with the NSTS.  Despite the poor weather it was very birdy.  While crossing the field I saw 2 Savannah Sparrows, 4 Meadowlarks and 2 adult Bald Eagles.  From 7-8:30am I looked very carefully along the entire length of the back edge of the field, and I saw a lot of sparrows as follows:

Eastern Towhee 4
Field Sparrow 3
Savannah Sparrow 11
Song Sparrow 24
Swamp Sparrow 9
White-throated Sparrow 19
Dark-eyed Junco 3

I also saw 2 N Harriers (1 ad. male plus 1 im.); about 1300 Am Robins (the wooded floodplain along the Patuxent River was saturated with them!); 36 Am Goldfinch; ~ 600 fly-over gulls (mostly Laughers, also Ringers, Herring and 3 G Bl Backs); ~ 350 flyover Canada Geese; 2 R-c Kinglets; 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler; and surprisingly - only 1 wren (CAWR).

This is a great park for birding.  The back of it between the hay field and the river is overgrown field and ideal habitat for sparrows now, but it will probably be forested in 25-35 years.

It is always a great way to honor our Veterans, by getting outdoors to enjoy our freedom and appreciate the great beauty in our environment.

Happy Veterans Day!
Jeff Shenot
Croom MD