Since everyone else is bragging about their recent birding, I thought I would chip in (even though I haven't seen much). I went on the Saturday morning Patuxent field trip to Lake Artemesia, Berwyn Heights, PG MD. There are still a number of winter ducks around (including a Redhead), but early spring migrants were the main show. The flashiest were the 31 Swans flying north, but there were also groups of up to 4 Tree Swallows flying around and a newly arrived Myrtle Warbler. The latter was clearly a migrant since it wasn't there earlier and later (Sunday, in the rain) it was joined by 7 more Myrtles (for a total of 8) along with by 2 Phoebes and a Fox Sparrow. After that walk, I headed north to the Beltsville Ag center (BARC) to look for the formerly resident Red-headed Woodpeckers. Unfortunately, they retained their adverb by not showing themselves. Perhaps this is not surprising since the beaver pond's forest of dead trees is rapidly giving way to a field of wet grass. But what was lacking in woodpeckers was made up in sparrows. My rough count was 145 song 25 white-throated 10 swamp 9 field 4 fox 1 American Tree Along with the usual Winter Wrens, Phoebes, etc. I call that a good half hour's count, perhaps even by Bonnie's standards. The east end of the pond hosts a Great Blue Heron Colony. At last count, a couple of years ago, there were 8 nests. Saturday, I counted 25 nests (most occupied) and 40 birds. Both counts are probably low since I didn't want to get too close and spook the birds. Dave David Mozurkewich Seabrook, MD USA dm@fornax.usno.navy.mil