I made a trip over to the Eastern Shore today - I had planned this before the phalarope showed up abut since it had been sticking around I included Blackwater in my itinerary.  Highlights were"
   
  Terrapin Park: c730-900: Purple Finch (around 10 overhead, mostly in singles) and one Red-breasted Nuthatch added a dash of "winter irruption" but otherwise just the expected migrants and winterers.  A little breezy.
   
  Blackwater NWR (10:30-11:30): successfully twitched the 1st Winter RED PHALAROPE.  I came across it 10:45 more or less exactly in the location described yesterday (in the canal past the short cut back to the Visitor Center), and for a few minutes it was about 20ft away at the other side of the canal.  It then flew a bit further away, indulged in some spinning, limped ashore for a brief period (as noted earlier it cannot put weight on one of its legs) and then it moved further away down a side branch though still visible.  There was no one there when I first came on the bird but within 30 mins a large flock of twitchers had arrived.  A great find, John Bjerke!  Hope it sticks around for everyone planning to go tomorrow.
   
  Gt Oak Pond, Kent Co. (1:00-2:00pm) - my first visit to this pond.  What a great spot for viewing geese.  I found 5 CACKLING GEESE quite quickly; they were swimming in a tight group in the middle of the pond with around 300 Canada geese.  It took longer but I eventually located the family of 4 ROSS'S GEESE that has been reported there for somewhile - they were sleeping in a large group of Snow Geese on the far side of the pond.  Nice in particular to see the young Ross's, not a plumage I've seen before.  There were around 2000 Snow Geese there, mostly white birds but some "Blue Geese" in there as well.
   
  Good birding, 
   
  Regards
   
  Clive Harris
  Cabin John, MD