Yesterday I had several nice surprises while working from home.  During 
lunch break I went out for about 45 minutes and I saw 5 first-of-year 
birds for my yard list, including 3 warblers and a very hard-to-get 
sparrow for here.  I had Louisiana Waterthrush (1), Yellow (1) and Yellow 
Palm (several) Warblers, a pair of Spotted Sandpipers, and a lone WHITE-
CROWNED SPARROW in very bright breeding plumage.  This species does not 
frequent around our immediate area in winter, and even in good habitat is 
not always present in winter.  The most typical time of year to find it 
here is in fall migration.  I watched the WCSP feed on black sunflower and 
rest for about ten minutes; I have nice video of it perching in a 
flowering dogwood in full bloom, something I’ve never seen!  It was ironic 
to see an uncommon over-wintering bird at the same time with migrant 
warblers.  I also noticed an unusually high number of swamp sparrows.  
They seemed to be all over around the house, but especially abundant (and 
vocal!) in the swamp behind us.

Back to the grind in the office today; wish I was out instead!
Jeff Shenot
Croom MD