Today at Southwest Area Park (Baltimore County) Elliot Kirschbaum, 
Gail Frantz and I were pleased to see a Vesper Sparrow near the boat 
launch area. We were not immediately sure what it was, especially 
since it neither sang nor flew, and is an impressively nondescript 
bird, but a little study of the bird and Sibley clinched it. One 
interesting and conspicuous feature that I never noticed before was 
that the entire underside of the tail was white or off-white, which 
appears to be very unusual for sparrows.

We also saw our first Blue-gray Gnatcatchers of the season there, and 
a yellow Palm Warbler, and several Myrtles. We had several Brown 
Creepers, a Hermit Thrush, and many Flickers.

We started with the bird club's First Wednesday walk at Fort McHenry. 
Some notable birds there were a Black & White Warbler seen by a few, a 
very cooperative Hermit Thrush, 3 Brown Thrashers, 2 Barn Swallows 
along with a few Rough-wings and dozens of Tree Swallows, several 
Brown Creepers, and many Flickers.

Steve Sanford
Randallstown MD (Baltimore County)
scartan AT verizon.net