Hi Folks,

Charlie Kucera and I covered the southern edge of Baltimore County (mostly along the Patapsco River) for today's midwinter count.  Land birding was extremely slow, but we did have a few nice birds, mostly at Southwest Area Park.  An hour of pre-dawn owling netted us a single GREAT HORNED OWL at the Glen Artney section of Patapsco Valley State Park.  Our next notables were ducks at the Halethorpe Farms Ponds (#4 & #5) where we picked up GADWALL (17), BLACK DUCK (4), RING-NECKED DUCK (2), HOODED MERGANSER (3), and COMMON MERGANSER (7) with the usual Canada Geese and Mallards.  Best birds were at SWAP, where we got our only notable sparrow, a single AM. TREE SPARROW; one each of five species of raptor:  BALD EAGLE (adult), N. HARRIER, COOPER'S HAWK, AM. KESTREL, and PEREGRINE FALCON; a GREEN-WINGED TEAL hanging out with nine Black Ducks; and a male RING-NECKED PHEASANT at dusk flying into the phragmites south of the water to the south of the road leading to the boat launch.  A good finish following a very slow start.

Stan Arnold
Ferndale (AA Co.)