Hi Folks,

Yesterday (Thur., 9 Nov) I attended a professional conference, allowing me
to leave home later than usual, and make several trips around the yard in
daylight before leaving the house.  The yard was full of activity following
two days of rain, and the sky was alive with thousands of grackles flying
over in massive flocks.  I caught sight of what appeared to be a raptor out
of the corner of my eye, and turned to view a bird cruising along steadily.
When the bird turned in flight, however, it was all black, and I thought it
was a crow.  Elaine and I then watched the bird dive and make some turns,
and we both muttered to each other "that's not a crow."  During one of the
turns, a very clear wedge-shaped tail was visible--we were watching a COMMON
RAVEN.  As we gawked in disbelief, the raven descended into a group of
smaller crows and then disappeared out of sight beyond a neighboring house.
This is not a common bird anywhere in the coastal plain, though the range
does appear to be expanding in Maryland.  I thought I had seen a raven in
our yard once before, but was too skeptical to give it serious
consideration.

Yesterday we also had the largest number of species in our yard for a
November day, with a total count of 30, including four species of corvid (we
had 5 Fish Crows fly over, along with the regular Blue Jays and Am. Crows),
two Herring Gulls flying over, our first White-breasted Nuthatch in a month,
and our first Ruby-crowned Kinglet in a week, visiting its favorite place in
the yard--one of our pear trees.

The same afternoon, Elaine and I took a walk at Southwest Area Park in
Baltimore Co., and while approaching the culverts "between the waters"
heading toward the boat ramp on foot, two hen PHEASANTS flushed across the
road in front of us, totally disappearing in the thick phragamites, as
pheasants tend to do.  This is the first time in about two years that I've
actually seen a pheasant here, though I've heard them several times each
year for the past three years, and have seen numerous tracks following
snowfall.  Other birds of casual interest included Ruby-crowned Kinglet,
Savannah Sparrow, and Swamp Sparrow (2).

On a non-birding note, a week ago Wednesday while Elaine and I hiked the
southern loop at SWAP, we looked north at one of the tidal ponds, and saw a
radio-controlled airplane resting at water's edge in an area that would be
totally inaccessable to foot traffic.  There was no one flying planes that
day, so we had no one to report our discovery to.  Yesterday, we noticed the
plane was still there, and were able to talk to one of the plane operators,
and offered to come back today with our kayak to try to retrieve the plane.
So today, we did just that, though the tide was hazardously low, which means
getting around would require some "poling."  We were able to maneuver fairly
well till within about 20 feet of the plane, and then had to pole our way
through the muck, breaking one of our paddles in the process.  At least we
were successful in retrieving the plane, and re-united plane and owner,
though the plane was a bit waterlogged and had a broken wing.  Hopefully, we
were able to chalk up a few brownie points for birders.

Stan Arnold
Glen Burnie