Hi,

I spent much of yesterday exploring Carroll County with my niece, 
Megan.  We started at the New Windsor Wetlands where we saw virtually no 
waterfowl ( 4 Mallards, 1 Canada) but good numbers of other birds including:
GB He - 3
RT Hawks - 2 adults
AmKe - 1
Killdeer - 3
WiSnipe - 1
BeKingfisher - 1
EaPhoebe - 3
Palm Warbler (Western) - 1
and lots of sparrows including 2 White-crowneds and good numbers of Swamps.
We also saw a fox.  A great place that I look forward to birding again.

Piney Run:  Lots of waterfowl.  These are rough estimates (I didn't take 
good notes).  There were many birds at the north end of the lake that I 
couldn't see well, and I didn't check the south side of the lake well.
PBGrebe - 8
GBHe - 1
GWTeal - 1
Am Wigeon - 10
Canvasback - 4
RNDucks
Bufflehead
HoMerg
BaEagle - 2 adults and 1 imm.
Coots - many

We visited a couple spots on Liberty Lake and saw virtually nothing - 
either Bob Ringler has a better spot than me or the birds came in after 3 PM.
Oakland Road - 3 PB Grebes, 4 mallards, 1 Canada.  I had a very brief very 
poor look at a Grebe along the Balt Co side that impressed me as being 
long-billed, but it dove and then stayed out of sight behind a cove.  It 
was a poor look and possibly/probably just a Pied-billed, but it got my 
attention.

Then we finished the day by heading out to Shiver Road in Frederick County 
where we made a study of Mockingbirds perched on distant tree tops.  It is 
truly amazing how many Mockingbirds are in this area!  Or is it just that 
we are scanning such a large area?  Near dusk I spotted a very distant bird 
near the north end of Shiver Road that appeared 'Shrike-like' (stockier 
with a shorter tail).  It was closer to Harney Road than to Shiver, so I 
drove to Harney, turned left and then pulled off on a gravel drive near an 
old water tank about 500m down the road.  This was closer to where Ihad 
seen the bird but the bird had flown.  It is quite likely that this was yet 
another Mockingbird that I wanted to turn into a Shrike, but I do think 
that anyone visiting this area might want to try a scan from Harney Road as 
well.  There is a semicircular drive near the old tank that is a convenient 
and unintrusive place from which to scan, and I believe that it is closer 
to some of the trees where the Shrike was seen on the 18th.

We also had fly-over Coopers Hawk and Pipits, and as we drove out Shiver 
Road our consolation for the Shrike was a nice chorus of White-crowned 
Sparrows and a stunning sunset.

Good luck,
Tom




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             Tom Feild
             Code 568
           NASA/GSFC
      Greenbelt, MD 20771
           301-286-6686
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