Hi all --

Despite the brutal day we ended up with about the same number of species in
Sector 6 as in previous good-weather years -- 58.

Highlights:

35 American Black Duck (Thanksgiving Farms pond)
4 Green-winged Teal (")
10 Wild Turkeys (Lilypons)
3 Bald Eagles (2 at least were different birds)
11 Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers (high #)
2 Brown Creepers
7 Golden-crowned Kinglets
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
53 eastern Bluebirds (high #, they seemed to be everywhere)
1 Hermit Thrush
3 Myrtle Warblers (old Monocacy Bottom Rd)
50 (!) White-crowned Sparrows (mostly at Claggett Center)
3 American Tree Sparrows (Lilypons)
3 Chipping Sparrows(Claggett)
(also Field, Swamp, White-throat, Song and Junco)
9 Eastern Meadowlarks (Lilypons Rd.)

I also had a Raven overhead along Rt. 270 en route home (in Sector 8). He
came gliding in over the freeway, and, hitting a sudden updraft of wind over
the road, did a complete and graceful barrel roll and continued on...

Lowlights (that is, never missed before):

A total dip on Horned Larks and thus no Lapland Longspurs (it appears that
the heavy pre-Christmas snow, which still lay along every roadside, has
moved these open-field birds out and away from their normal haunts.)

No Snipe, Kingfisher or Phoebe.

Kudos to all who did this count (and others the same weekend) in such
terrible conditions. Several times during the day I wondered how some of
these tiny birds manage to survive -- like that single, lively Ruby-crowned
flashing his red spot at me along Lilypons Road!

Gail Mackiernan
Colesville, MD