The most unusual of these birds by far was the Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

During the last year of the atlas a male of this species was seen as 
late as this in Clinton, in PG County. And in 1955, in Edgewater, AA Co, 
   a male appeared in, or lingered until, early June - though of course 
I was too young to remember it.

Fred Fallon
Bowie MD

Bob Hartman wrote:

> My son Ken and I were quite successful in searching for Saltmarsh 
> Sharp-tailed Sparrows (life bird for Ken, since they don't get to Texas) 
> on Elliot Island Road today.  We saw one or two, along with some Seaside 
> Sparrows, then played a recording briefly, trying to get them closer. 
> That worked great: about 4-6 more came out and gave us some great looks. 
>  That all happened 5.7 miles south of the intersection @ Henry's 
> Crossroad, about 200 meters before the big "Fishing Bay" sign, in the 
> short bright green grass on the right (west) side of the road.  Other 
> notables on EI Rd were 2 Bald Eagles, an alternate plumage Dunlin 
> hanging out with a Semipalmated Sandpiper, and a Red-winged Blackbird 
> hassling a Red-tailed Hawk, several times actually landing on the back 
> of the hawk for 2-3 seconds.
> 
> Since that all took less time than we feared, we had time to stop by 
> Pickering Creek on the way home.  The most interesting birds there were 
> a pair of Blue Grosbeaks talking to each other, a singing Grasshopper 
> Sparrow, a (somewhat scruffy) singing Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and a 
> juvenile Prairie Warbler.
> 
>     Bob Hartman
>     Silver Spring/Colesville
>