Hi all,
 After yesterday's call from Dave Powell I decided that I would head  out 
there this morning to see it. About 2/3 of the way there, Rob Hilton phoned  me 
to say that Dave Cz had found an Eared Grebe at Black Hill reservoir. Uh oh,  
the sound of screeching brakes!! Year bird versus county bird, hmmm.  And I had 
to be at the blood lab in Olney before noon for bloodwork. Oh well, a  
no-brainer. Head to Black Hill, and on the way call friends on cell. Got in  touch 
with Helen Patton (apparently lots of folks away for the holiday...). Got  to 
BH and saw the bird, ran into Kevin Graff and Helen on my way out. And Rob  
Hilton and Lisa Shannon too. 
 
Well by now it was too late to get to Poolesville for the crane and get to  
Olney before noon, so I headed back into Black Hill to see what else was 
around.  Long-tailed Duck but no Red-throated Loon. Not much else, but wait, Rob's 
cell  phone rings, and he gets word of the Stasz find of 2 Cave Swallows at the 
bridge  at Lily Pons! Well it turned into quite a morning. Head to Lily Pons, 
quickly,  for the swallows. Nice gathering of folks there, as Mark said, and 
nice looks at  these (LIFE, state, county!!) birds, hawking insects over the 
Monocacy River.  Well, now it was too late to get to Olney for my bloodwork, so 
why not head to  Poolesville for the crane!
 
Got to Poolesville with Helen in the lead, saw the O'Briens leaving, ran  
into Stan Arnold (coming and going), and saw the crane ( a very beautiful  
immature bird in perfect light) feeding in the field right beside the road. As  we 
were leaving Jim Green pulled up and we told him of the other great  finds this 
morning.
 
 Whew!! Headed home, thinking if I should die of some rare blood  disease 
before I get my lab work done next week, well at least I'd die a happy  man...
 
Rick Sussman
Ashton,MD
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