This afternoon I went to Merkle Wildlife Sanctuary in Croom.  I was hoping to 
find the Baltimore oriole or anything else uncommon.  For several weeks there 
had been a Ross' Goose present around here, but it disappeared sometime in 
January.  I don't know if it has been seen since then.  Today was the first day 
the Sanctuary was open since last week (due to all the storm activity at mid-
week), and there was a lot of tree damage, just like everywhere in Croom.  
Prior to the storm, the oriole that had been coming to their feeders regularly 
but has disappeared - it was not seen today.

However, I got an exceptionally great consolation prize.  At 3 PM I was out on 
the walk looking over the geese and watching a redtail soaring over the fields, 
when a lot of geese got up.  I thought "that's odd, they wouldn't get up over 
a buteo".  I looked but saw nothing, and then all the birds got up.  Suddenly it 
was obvious why; from out of nowhere an eagle soared right over the pond 
behind the visitor center, drifting toward the river sort of southeast.  The 
broad tail band and white wing patches were plainly obvious.  I mentioned to 
someone next to me to look at the tail band!

It drifted away SE passing over the fields, and as it passed over a forest a lot 
more geese got up from another field.  Although I only saw it for about one 
minute, it was a perfect clear close image, and watching it drift away and stir 
the geese up was thrilling!

Cheers-
Jeff Shenot
Croom MD