We have already heard about the post-breeding dispersal of some local herons and swallows.  Today (6/28/04) I saw my first true migrant of the fall, one Least Sandpiper at the Mason Dixon Farm ponds near Emmitsburg.  It was with the local breeders, two Killdeer and two Spotted Sandpipers.  The Savannah Sparrow was still singing here.
   In other notes from Atlasing in Carroll County, the Dickcissels remain at the two sites previously reported.  One singing male was on Bullfrog Road about a half mile from Baumgardner (DeLorme 73B4).  It was in the small pines and on the utility wire near the first house at that point today.  A Blue Grosbeak, rare in Carroll, was also here.  On Saturday I saw two singing male Dickcissels and one female at the Basehores Mill Road site (DeLorme 73B6), about three tenths of a mile from Mayberry Road where the road bends to the right in the field on the right side of the road.  A Red-headed Woodpecker was at the intersection of Bullfrog and Baumgardner.  They are present at multiple sites in most Atlas blocks in northern Carroll County.  Bobolinks are still singing at three sites:  Keysville Road both west and south of the intersection with Baumgardner, Reifsnider Road near the intersection with Route 194 (Savannah Sparrow also singing here), and the Keysville-Bruceville Road just SE of the village of Keysville.  These three sites are just south of the first Dickcissel site.  There is little or no shoulder on any of these roads.  Please be careful if you visit.  Farm machinery is very active on the roads these days.

Bob Ringler
Eldersburg MD