This was the first hurricane I've been in the area for in at least 5 years. Try telling a non-birder that this is not good luck. Yesterday, Thursday, I spent some time watching the Potomac from its east shore a couple miles north of the Wilson Bridge. I watched for about an hour starting as soon as it was light enough to see. There was a pretty nice flight of birds heading north which included Forster's Tern 150 COMMON TERN 5 Caspian Tern 6 Blue Winged Teal 6 Mallard 10 Great Blue Heron 4 Herring Gull 10 Great Black Backed Gull 1 Yellowlegs 3 Canada Goose 110 Cormorant 15 Only the Common Terns seem out of place. The viewing was better than I expected since most of the birds were near my shore. I also checked the river mid-day and evening for about a half hour each and, except for a peep heading north, the birds were just milling around. In a 3 hour search this morning, I found nothing on the Potomoc, the Anacostia or on the lakes I checked in northern PG county. Not much data, but it seems to suggest agreement with what Czaplak said last year: "You want to be out before the storm hits or to the east of where the eye breaks up." Dave David Mozurkewich Seabrook, MD USA dm@fornax.usno.navy.mil