I have at least three Chipping Sparrows at the bird feeder today,
the first I have seen there since we put the feeder up in October.
A female flicker just hung from the feeder perch while I was typing this.

I also have a couple of snowdrops that will bloom tomorrow if the sun comes out
and it gets as warm as the weather folks are predicting. Groundhog day was the
earliest I've had flowers before this. Crocuses and daffodils are coming 
up, too.
I am also seeing large flocks of robins, unusual for here for January.

Where do robins go when we have a "normal" cold winter? Are the robins
I'm seeing around here probably from upstate New York or Canada? Are
Maryland robins somewhere south now? Or are these local breeding
birds who just decided it wasn't worth the trip this year?

At 01:11 PM 1/12/2005, you wrote:
>A single adult Bald Eagle was just recently spotted in Northern Carroll 
>County, perched in a tree above Bear Branch (the creek), just off of 
>Bachman Valley Rd (near mailbox 252) north of Westminster, MD. The bird 
>appeared to be hunting over an open field. Is this an unusual sighting for 
>northern Carroll County??
>
>Melissa Boyle
>Naturalist
>Bear Branch Nature Center
>Hashawha Environmental Center
>Westminster, MD

--Pat

Pat Valdata, Elkton, MD | 
"The natural function of the wing is to soar upwards
and carry that which is heavy up to the place where dwells the race of gods.
More than any other thing that pertains to the body
it partakes of the nature of the divine." --Plato