Debbie Terry and I toured some locations in Southern Maryland where rare birds have been seen. It was sunny, cold, and breezy.
   We started at Jim Stasz's house for the hummingbird. Shortly after we arrived Dave Holmes and Bruce Peterjohn arrived to band the bird. It appeared immediately after they set up the trap. After buzzing around the outside for a while looking for the entrance it was trapped and banded confirming that it is an immature male RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD. After release it continued feeding. A reporter and photographer from the Washington Post were also there.
   Our next stop was at Beauvue, St. Mary's County where we saw the drake EURASIAN WIGEON. It was with Gadwall, Redheads and many other ducks in the small pond with a duck blind next to the farm road. While we were there Marty Cribb pulled up and said that he had seen a grebe there since last week and that he was not sure of the identification. He was able to find it and we confirmed that it is an EARED GREBE. It was in the long pond in front of the pale yellow house.
   We ended the day at Piscataway at the end of Wharf Road. We found Dan Eberly there looking at another EARED GREBE. It was on the far side a little to the left of the marsh. Large numbers of Ring-necked Ducks were here and about 20 Shovelers plus Canvasbacks, Redheads and others. Dan said the road to the boardwalk area was closed so we did not go there.
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Bob Ringler
Eldersburg MD