Doug,

Thanks for the heads up.  I did take that into consideration, as I ride my
bike through that area quite a bit and see both the security vehicles and
numerous No Trespassing signs.  However, one of the security guys drove
right by me today while I was checking out the bobolinks and barely even
acknowledged my presence.  I was somewhat surprised, since I at least
expected him to slow down a bit and ask what I was doing, though perhaps the
scope and binos gave it away.  Still, it is definitely important to realize
it is a government facility and that one should stay on the public roads.

-Colin Hebert


On Sat, May 10, 2008 at 11:45 PM, Douglas Bolt <>
wrote:

>  Hi Colin,
>
> Just a word of caution regarding the BARC Security.  They can sometimes get
> rather unreasonable about folks getting out of their cars to look around on
> BARC.  I know it sounds unnecessary, but just a word to the wise.  I nearly
> froze one winter morning waiting for a guard's supervisor to arrive and say
> I was not a threat because I was attempting to photograph some birds from
> the ditch along Beaverdam Road (which is a public road).  I had in my
> possession an expired birding permit and a retired employee's ID, but that
> didn't impress the guard.
>
> As to Bobolinks, we saw over a 100 on BARC at the May Count today.
>
> Douglas Bolt
> DougandMarie.com
> Beltsville, MD USA
>
>
>
> Colin Hebert wrote:
>
> I was able to locate the flock of BOBOLINKS this afternoon in the spot Derek
> described.  They were hanging out in some rather short trees in a cow field
> (near the cows) to the northeast of the intersection of Beaver Dam and Sheep
> Rd.  I parked right across from the water treatment plant, walked east down
> beaver dam for about 50 feet as Derek mentioned, and the field was to my
> left.  No MEADOWLARKS though, oh well.
>
> -Colin Hebert
> Beltsville, MD
>
> On Thu, May 8, 2008 at 5:33 PM, Derek C. Richardson <> <>
> wrote:
>
>
>
>  The BOBOLINKS reported on MDOSPREY a few days ago were easy to find this
> afternoon near the Beltsville water treatment plant in PG County (my GPS
> indicated that the spot was around 7007 Beaver Dam Rd, about 50 ft east of
> the intersection with Sheep Rd).  A nice flock of 50 or so males and females
> either chattering in the treetops or foraging in the tall grasses on the
> opposite side of the road from the plant.  Scope recommended but not
> essential.  As a bonus, there were 2 EASTERN MEADOWLARKS among them as well,
> one singing loudly.  Also plenty of swallows (I found TREE and BARN but
> didn't search too carefully; I only had 20 mins).
>
> Enjoy,
>
> D
>
> --
> Derek C. Richardson, Laurel, PG County, MD
> http://www.astro.umd.edu/~dcr/Archives/Photos/birds.html <http://www.astro.umd.edu/%7Edcr/Archives/Photos/birds.html><http://www.astro.umd.edu/%7Edcr/Archives/Photos/birds.html> <http://www.astro.umd.edu/%7Edcr/Archives/Photos/birds.html>
>
>
>