A great day along the Paint Branch Trail here in College Park... adding
three birds to the year list (40 on the trail now), two of the three were
far from everyday birds though.

My wife woke me up at 3:15am to alert me to a Great Horned Owl calling in
the distance outside.  Probably the same bird we'd heard two nights back in
November, but not since.  I was not only able to hear it (from the trail
head too), but was able to spot the bird perched near the top of one of the
tall trees, perhaps 250 yards away.  I've often felt disappointment at the
lack of evergreens in the neighborhood, as I (perhaps incorrectly) associate
them with good roosting for owls. This morning I was very grateful for the
bare-branched deciduous trees which made it easy to spot the owl!  In the
10-15 minutes I was outside, I not only heard it hooting, but also
screeching/yelping a few times  (which came out much more clearly on the
audio recording than the hooting, I doubt anyone's interested but if so,
contact me offline).

On my way back from school in the early evening (~5:15pm), I was delighted
to find a Peregrine Falcon at the swamp along the trail, perched atop the
tallest dead tree in the middle of the swamp, a short distance from the
trail.  I was able to watch for a minute or two before a jogger in the other
direction flushed it.  The consolation was that I got to watch it circle
briefly and then speed off after two unfortunate birds that happened to be
flying in the area.  Man, that bird was fast and this was in level flight,
not even diving.  It was gaining on one of the two birds as it went out of
sight heading south, rapidly approaching Rt. 193 (University Ave.).  With
some luck it might still be in town tomorrow... who knows?

Good Birding Everyone!

Ryan Farrell
College Park, MD