Hi Everybody:

 I wanted to post a quick update on the Loggerhead Shrike. I first saw the bird sometime between 7:30 and 8 AM. It was perched on the tops of a plant with a long vertical stalk which I believe is some type of Mullein?. It was moving around every several minutes, sometimes moving on its own and sometimes being chased from its perch by any one of at least 3 N. Mockingbirds which were in the same vicinity. When Marcia Balllestri and Kathy Calvert showed up it was out of sight and then found perched on a large snag (this snag is the trunk itself and it has one major branch growing off of it -  about 2 o'clock direction) with leaves on it. This snag is located behind the drainage pond.  Marcia saw it fly off this perch to the right and behind other trees. Ten minutes later Kathy saw it fly off from the same snag and head in the same direction and out of sight behind other trees (but we never saw it return to this spot the second time). Below this tree line and down an incline is an open field with either barbed wire or an electric fence which does not look like it can be accessed. Hopefully the Shrike will return to an easier seen vantage point. I stopped by a second time after Joe Hanfman and Joe Culler called me to say they had arrived but while I was there they had not yet located the Shrike. It was somewhat of a birdy area. Not noticed in the early AM but after I returned there was also a male Blue Grosbeak in the area.

Special thanks to Hans Holbrook for showing me this location  several years ago as a potential shorebird spot in Washington County. This was my only reason for checking out this spot today. Good Luck to anybody that tries for it.

I will post a complete listing of my day later this evening after work.

Jim Green
Gaithersburg, MG

Work in Moderation, BIRD IN EXCESS!!!