On 23 October Kathy Klimkiewicz wrote: > It seems to me that MOS and the Audubon chapters, as well as > ANS, should all work together for state and local issues. Many > of the SMAS members also belong to MOS and can participate in > MOS direction etc. SMAS is also much more oriented to birds and > field trips for birding than many Audubon chapters. Kathy, I'm not putting down the SMAS folks...I certainly hope you didn't get that impression from my note. I'm really impressed with their organization and dedication and not a little envious of all those dues dollars...grin. I couldn't agree more about the need now more than ever for the various birding organizations to work together. Unfortunately, most of us in these organizations are volunteers with whole other lives begging for our attentions as well. Ah well, maybe next year the world will become a perfect place...sigh. Now, let's talk birds! Perhaps the dates aren't earth-shattering, but we had our first backyard HERMIT THRUSH yesterday evening and our first backyard BROWN CREEPER of the Fall season today! I was just looking through my records for the year and realized I'm only 22 species shy of seeing 400 birds this year! On the down side, we don't have any more trips scheduled before the New Year. Looking through the MD bird-lists I figure we can pick up about a dozen birds over on the coast that we haven't already seen this year...which still leaves 10 big ones. I know Mike Bowen of the Montgomery Chapter of MOS tried for 3 or 4 years for this target before he finally broke it last year. I will keep all apprised of our progress..grin. Cheers, Norm =============== Norm Saunders Colesville, MD osprey@ari.net