This afternoon, as I started to drive into town, I noticed a flock of 
blackbirds land in a yard 3 houses from mine.  They looked like 
redwings, but when I got to the yard, I saw white eyes on some of 
them.  I stopped, made sure, backed up to my house and got my 
binoculars, and drove back to where they were now located.  It was a 
mixed flock of robins, redwings and BREWER'S BLACKBIRDS, about 30 
robins, 20 redwings, and 14 Brewer's (9 males and 5 females).  While 
looking at them, a PILEATED WOODPECKER swooped down and landed at the 
base of a tree in that yard.  I was stopped directly in front of 
Carol Broderick's house, so I called her using my cell phone, but she 
wasn't home.

To top it off, today there was a RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET and a PINE 
WARBLER eating suet at my feeder.  Yesterday I had the first 
brown-headed cowbird at the feeder.  Around dark, I had a cell phone 
call from a friend in TN, and I went out on the deck to get better 
reception.  While talking to him, I saw a bird sitting in one of the 
pines overlooking the yard.  As soon as the conversation was over, I 
got my binoculars and it was an immature SHARP-SHINNED HAWK.  That 
explains the feathers around the yard.  I have seen an adult 
(probably female) hunting robins in the neighborhood, but this is a 
different bird.  Two sharpies working the area makes life pretty 
tough for the little guys.

Paul Bystrak
3709 Devonshire Drive
Salisbury, MD 21804