I was one of the people with Bonnie this morning on her Sparrow search. This bird, a first winter Harris' Sparrow was very cooperative and allowed us to view it while it fed quietly on the ground for nearly an hour. We had extended views through the scope. We photographed it in the morning. I shot a roll - all I had with me - using a 500mm lens. Some of us who had access retruned in the afternoon and relocated it. It was last seen at around 4:00 PM today. There's plenty of food in the area. The only problem is it seems to hang around a brush pile of recently cleared brush, and who knows what the farm has in mind for that area. If that area is left alone I could see it hanging around. The next problem is that hunting is allowed on the farm, and they really only like to have us there on Sundays. We'll have to check with Bonnie, but maybe she'd be willing to lead a trip there next Sunday if the bird hangs around. Bonnie was really thrilled. She truely knows her sparrows well. It took her all of 20 seconds to process this bird through her mental computer and come up with the correct ID on a bird she had never seen before, but already knew intimately. The other four of use eventually reached the same conclusion, but she did it quickly and correctly. One of the most striking things about this bird was it's size, seeing it dwarf a White-crowned. Once this afternoon it was next to a Song Sparrow and the song looked kinglet-like. It's large pink bill was also distinctive. The crown had dark lateral streaks, the side of it's head being a plain tan with a dark spot behind the ear covert. The thoat was white (though some dark specs were visible through the scope) and there were two thin dark brown malar stripes that connected the base of the bill to a dark necklace-like splotch at the top of it's white breast. The rump and the uppertail coverts were a plain brown/gray color. It had two thin white wing-bars and the tail long and squareish. It fed mostly on the ground eating seeds while we watched. So, hopefully this bird will act like the one Gail mentioned and hang around all winter so lots of Maryland birders can see it. At this point, we'll settle for until next Sunday ! Good Birding, Darius Ecker (dariuse@abs.net) Columbia, Maryland USA