Hi All.  I had fun doing the Great Backyard Bird Count this long (holiday) 
weekend.  Here are a few observations - I did both my yard and the 
surrounding area, tracked as Upper Marlboro.  It is a large area of various 
habitats, which I characterized as "city/couny park" when I entered my data 
because that is where most of the observations that I made occurred.  I had 
61 species for my "yard" and 87 species total for the count area (U.M.).  I 
had one new yard bird for the year (American Widgeon).

I noticed American widgeons must be moving - I found them in 4 separate 
locations.  All were low in numbers, but they were widepread.  I noticed 
wood ducks are moving too, they were all over and in one area I found 41.  
I also noted a wide variety of waterfowl in general, though most were low 
in number of individuals.

I checked some of the GBBC results (note - there may be additional reports 
that are not submitted or available yet) and noticed some "good birds" 
reported that I don't think were mentioned here on Osprey.  For some I 
can't help questioning the validity, but others are probably valid and 
worth noting.  For my own area (U.M.) someone reported 5 Glaucous Gulls, 
which almost always when found here are also seen by someone who reports 
this to Osprey.  This is certainly feasible - perhaps my judgement is 
selfishly clouded by my envy!

Noteworthy suspects include:
 - American Pipits counted in Silver Spring;
 - Little Gull from 2 very different places: Woodstock (3 birds seen; the 
only gull reported there, and only "rare" bird of 24 species there); alsod 
from C&O Canal NHP (17 sp.; also had OC Warbler but this is a likely 
possibility);
 - Black-headed Gull from Montgomery Village (22 sp. but no other gulls);
 -  Northern Shrike from Baltimore (60 sp. with a good list, but is this 
unusual for winter or locality?) It seems possible not very likely given 
the localilty?

I also looked at some fun possibly/probably more credible sightings and 
noted:
 - Northern Goshawk from Damascus (36 sp.);
 - Dickcissel from Ellicott City (47 sp.);
 - Brewers Blackbird from Frederick (49 sp.) and Laurel (50 sp.);
 - Snow Bunting from Westminster (44 sp.);
 - Golden Eagle from Massey (where is this?).

Hope others had as much fun as I did being out this weekend!

Cheers -
Jeff Shenot
Croom MD