I'll never complain about wind again.  It's brought such fine birds to my deck feeders.  Just had my first purple finch (yard bird) and pine siskin (life bird).  I just hate to go to work.

--
Susan Henyon

Upper Marlboro, MD 20772

-------------- Original message --------------

> I had a much longer wait than normal (about 50 minutes), and enjoyed the
> time by bird watching (w/out bino's). Nothing unusual (my poll is at a
> church in Upper Marlboro), but I observed 13 species while standing in the
> line outside (list below). I always vote as soon as the polls open, and
> previously the longest I've ever waited in line (same time of day) was
> about 5 minutes. But this year - either our population has increased 5
> fold here, or the voter turnout is phenomenal, or everyone in Croom
> couldn't wait to vote. Most likely a mix of each. Too many people have
> moved into NEW houses in southern PG County in the last few years, and the
> rate of loss of good bird habitat here to urban sprawl is truly
> frightening. I hope most of the people are voting for the bird-friendly
> candidate(s: incl. the Senate and House races). We are alarmingly close to
> a perfect storm; a political mix with a predictable disastrous loss of
> habitat from unprecedented reductions in environmental protections looms
> on America's horizon. My stomach is in knots.
>
> Canada goose 14
> Killdeer 1
> Ring-billed gull 4
> Herring gull 11
> Gull sp. 2
> Rock pigeon 13
> Northern flicker 1
> Downy woodpecker 1
> American crow 1
> Crow sp. 2
> American robin 3
> Northern mockingbird 1
> European starling 23
> Slate-colored Junco 1
> House finch 1
> Unid'd passerine sp. 2
>
> Jeff Shenot
> Croom