I started this morning (1/4) looking for crossbills in a couple of spots. I did not find any, but there were some other good winter birds. A Merlin (photo) was perched in the dead top of an evergreen at Druid Ridge Cemetery in Baltimore County. A Common Redpoll flew overhead, giving its chet, chet calls at Christmas Tree Park in Manchester, Carroll County. Two Red-breasted Nuthatches were here as well. Three Snow Buntings were mixed in with a flock of two dozen Horned Larks in the fields on the east side of Shriver Road about 1000 feet south of Harney Road in NE Frederick County.
Other sightings were a flock of 75 to 100 American Pipits along Feeser Road between Trevanion and Otterdale Mill Roads south of Taneytown, and a huge blackbird flock in fields along the Route 30 Hampstead Bypass. Most were grackles but I saw a few Red-winged Blackbirds. An immature Bald Eagle and a Red-tailed Hawk were soaring close by. Lastly, I saw one Northern Harrier and 5 Red-tailed Hawks along Walnut Grove Road west of Taneytown.
Jim Wilkinson
Columbia, MD
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