Brian Monk and I spent about two hours Thanksgiving morning at Bald Friar Road. Joined by Steve Sanford and others we had excellent looks at the Pacific Loon, mostly on the Cecil side of the river. Overcast days are perfect for observation at the site. It was a fairly big day for Tundra Swans. We saw about 200 and heard at least six flocks we did not see (fog isn't all good). In one flock we had two Snow Geese trying to stay with the swans. The condiditons were ideal for the river, spitty and overcast, the kind of day that has produced good birds in the past this time of year. Along with the loon, we had: Common Loon 10 Pied-billed Grebe 3 Lesser Scaup 70+ OLDSQUAW 100+ WHITE-WINGED SCOTER 5 Common Merganser 35 Red-breasted Merganser 20 Bufflehead 6 Common Goldeneye 2 Ruddy Duck 40 Bonaparte's Gull 200 FORSTER'S TERN 8 (getting late) We also had a flyover PURPLE FINCH and a probable RED CROSSBILL, also a flyover that unfortunately called only twice. Not certain. Most of the ducks were in single sex flocks, as is typical with mergansers and Oldsquaw (soon to be Long-tailed Duck). Birds were definitely on the move and being knocked down by the weather and I expect the next two or three days to be productive on the river. The Oldsquaw and the White-winged Scoters were numbers 248 and 249 for my year list in Harford. Rick The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously. -- Hubert H. Humphrey Rick Blom rblom@blazie.com 4318 Cowan Place Belcamp, Maryland 21017 (410)575-6086