Must be a Golden Eagle kind of day! Jane Kostenko (who is still recovering from seasonal flu) and I were driving to Upper Marlboro on an ill fated attempt at the Franklin's Gull at Schoolhouse Pond/Depot Pond this afternoon. As we were approaching the Solomons Bridge from the St. Mary's County side, we hit a back up near Myrtle Point Road. Apparently, in their infinite wisdom, the highway department decided that both Saturday and Sunday, during the day, would be a good time to close one lane of the bridge. Thankfully, traffic on the St. Mary's side wasn't nearly as bad as what we encountered on the Calvert side.

Anyway... as we were coasting down the Calvert side of the bridge, I spied an eagle soaring not too high above the car, perhaps 100 feet or so. We opened the skylight and watched an adult Golden Eagle for about 15 seconds, me between trying to keep on the road, and Jane continuously. 
 
Fred Fallon and I had just been having a discussion about raptors/migrants moving south through Calvert and I thought that perhaps there is a similar effect like Cape May where the birds hit the southern end of the peninsula, see lots of water then turn west or northwest before making the jump. I've always thought there should be better raptor movement in southern Calvert but it's pretty weak at best. Any thoughts?
 
PS - I tried to send this earlier but our power winked out for a second. We found out the hard way our UPS doesn't work. D'oh.

Tyler Bell

California, Maryland

How beautiful the leaves grow old. 
How full of light and color are their last days. 
John Burroughs