Hi all, Good luck to all search for Crossbills and other *winter* finches this weekend! My last birding day out this year was Jan. 4. I hunted for Crossbills/Siskins on Jan. 3 at the Deer Park location up near Liberty, but dipped on both (I was only there for 3 hrs and hiked from the first powerline cutting to the second). I had hoped for at least some Siskins. Oh, well. Maybe *next* month <grin>. <self pity ahead> Right now I'm stuck in the gray land of cubicles <sigh>. I go to work before light and go home after dark. And then there's weekends, too <aargh>. My Monday-Friday birdlist includes 2 species and 3 individuals: Common Crow and Ring-billed Gull <don't stop me...>. This morning I slept in and left for work at 7:45am. Daylight. Hooray. Yahoo. Yippee. <obligatory sarcasm> I stopped for gas and picked up some *NEW* species including the rare and elusive: Northern Cardinal, Carolina Wren, and Starling <thrill>. Driving the access road to BGE at Calvert Cliffs (my current contract), I added Eastern Bluebird and Dark-eyed Junco. <ahhh. that's better>. <end self pity> For those of you who know Southern Maryland, you know that the Visitor Overlook at the BGE Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Plant (open to the public from 10am-4pm daily) can be very interesting. Last winter I saw up to 2,000 ducks of about a dozen species. Over the past year I have seen Red-necked Grebe, Red-throated Loon, Great Cormorant, Surf and Black Scoter (still missing White-winged here). Unfortunately, I have only been able to stop there twice since Jan. 1 and only for brief 15-minute looks. The temperatures have been very warm this winter and the numbers are way low. Last Saturday's list only included a Com. Loon, a Horned Grebe, and about 70 Oldsquaw. No scoters (almost a given this time of year from this location). No goldeneyes or Buffleheads (very unusual). Gulls were scattered far out in the Bay. I had fly-by Ring-billed, Herring, and Great Black-backed Gulls. Anyhow, it's good that I can at least *READ* about *OTHER* people seeing birds. I even have a bitmap picture of the Ivory Gull from Maine last year to calm my ever-increasing itch to go birding. So birders, send those reports... Thanks everybody (it feels good to vent today), Greg Miller (itch/twitch/spasm birder) Lusby, MD -locked here in the bowels of cubedom