Hi Folks,

Elaine and I have done most of our birding from our Ferndale yard during the 
past few weeks, but that hasn't been too disappointing.  Our first FOX 
SPARROW of the season came ten days later than last year, when one appeared 
on 26 Feb, and we've had them a total of eight days so far this year, with 
two seen together today (3/14).  AMERICAN CROWs were first seen carrying 
nesting material in our yard almost a month ago, and we now catch them 
sneaking in and out of the top of one of our pine trees on a regular basis. 
I watched a MERLIN carrying prey over our yard on 27 Feb, our third yard 
sighting of the year, and then just three days ago, on 3/11, we watched one 
devour it's prey atop the same utility pole where we witnessed the same 
event twice before (visible from the end of the driveway).

A leucistic AMERICAN ROBIN seen in our yard on 2 March was an unusual 
spectacle.  Roughly half of its feathers were white.  For the past two weeks 
we've been trying to be outside at dusk in hopes of finding certain birds, 
and on 3/11 we found one of them:  a flock of about 80 TUNDRA SWANs flying 
high, and visible from our driveway.  We missed them totally last year. 
Yesterday (3/13) was a particularly fruitful day in the yard, when we 
registered 30 species, including a flyover KILLDEER (we normally only see 
one or two a year), and our first (and probably last) PURPLE FINCH of the 
year, a brownie.  While a little flock of about 15 CEDAR WAXWINGs 
periodically cruises our neighborhood, we only see them a few times a month. 
Yesterday, however, we had two of them drinking from one our patio bird 
baths--a yard first.  They've been eating cedar berries and also seem to be 
sampling the maple buds.

Today was also a productive day in our yard.  I sat outside in the pleasant 
warmth after getting home from work and found a singing PINE WARBLER, whose 
melodic warble was similar to, but not as telephone-like as the many junco 
songs being heard.  Later, as I looked into the sky I saw three of what I 
thought to be Turkey Vultures flying together.  I was one third right. 
Besides a TV, one of the birds was an adult Red-tailed Hawk, and the other 
was our yard's first of year BALD EAGLE, a beautiful adult circling 
around--probably a migrant, but possibly from the occupied eagle nest at 
Patapsco Pond #10 which is only 3.0 miles from our house (as per the 
distance-measuring tool found on Google Earth).

I'm also delighted to report that our two RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHes are still 
with us.  Sad will be the day when we see them no longer.

Good yard birding,

Stan Arnold
Ferndale (AA Co.)