I stopped at Beaver Creek this morning and found the Semipalmated Plover that John Hubbell reported last weekend. It is notable because I so rarely get a county closeout these days. Since Antietam Battlefield was not far from there I also checked Elliot Kirschbaum's Dickcissel site there. I saw one male. It was singing from the top of a tree at the first house at the north end of Dunker Church Road. It later sang from small trees in the field across the road and from the utility wire. Park service employees were spraying trees in the field. A little farther south on Dunker Church Road a Vesper Sparrow was singing from a fence post at the Miller Farm. Grasshopper Sparrows and Horned Larks could also be heard on nearby battlefield roads.

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Bob Ringler 
Eldersburg MD