I visited the Hanover PA reservoir watershed in north-central Carroll County and adjacent York County mid day Nov 21. I saw and heard 3 Red Crossbills fly overhead (stout, dark, short-tailed finches giving "kip, kip, kip" calls, with no white wing stripes). The location was on Kriders Schoolhouse Road about a third of the distance between Garrett Road and the PA state line. Just over the state line I saw 2 Common Ravens flying south towards Maryland and one crossbill perched in the top of a Norway Spruce but could not ID--it was too far away and silent. Unfortunately, a lot of the spruce has been replaced by young Loblolly Pine plantations which have almost no cone bearing trees. There are a few spruce stands (all in PA) near the Hanover Reservoir and between Kriders Schoolhouse and Bankard Roads that have cones.
Also in northern Carroll I found 3 Red-headed Woodpeckers along Ruggles Road about 1 mile west of Route 194, north of Taneytown, and a Northern Harrier along Bullfrog Road (likely the same bird reported recently by Laura Rinier)
Jim Wilkinson
Columbia, MD
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