Hey everyone,

Dave Ziolkowski and I did some birding in Howard 
County today.  We started out at Centennial Park,
and, even though we'd seen the "great White-winged
Crossbill show" before, we thought it would be fun
to try to see them again.  Joe H. had them earlier
on his field trip, and, they were seen by a few others
around 11am, but, they did not show while Dave and I
were there from 11:30-1:30 today.  Bob Augustine was
there, along with some other birders, then, Tom and 
Sharon Bradford showed up a bit later.  While we were
waiting for the crossbills, we had some of the "regulars"
fly by, but, we also had an adult Bald Eagle go over.
A little later, Bob yells, "White-winged Gull" and we all
got on the 2 gulls flying over.  The trailing bird was an
Iceland Gull with the lead bird being a Herring Gull.  
A nice find by Bob while we were there!

Dave and I went next to Wilde Lake where the Red-necked Grebe
was quickly found.  We then stopped by Schooley Mill Park to 
see if we could find the WWCR's there.  After checking the 
Douglas Firs and not finding them, we hiked the trail around
the park.  Besides a few nice sparrows, we had a great close
look at an adult Cooper's Hawk along the trail.  When we got 
back to the parking lot we ran into Mike and Grazina McClure
and Wes and Susan Earp.

Our last stop was at Brighton Dam where we found 54 Common 
Mergansers, 1 male Red-breasted Merganser, 1 Pied-billed Grebe, 
2 Red-necked Grebes and a lone male Green-winged Teal, plus,
Ring-billed Gulls and Crows along the shoreline.

A great day to be out birding!

Peter Osenton
Jessup, Md.