Hi Folks,

During my lunch today I zipped over to Meadowbrook in Howard Co.
(where Rte 100 meets US 29), and as I pulled into the parking area
Bill Hill was just leaving, having put down some bird seed in hopes of
luring a sparrow.  I walked down behind the playground and almost the
first bird I saw was the CLAY-COLORED SPARROW which hopped up into a
bush where I got a good view for a few seconds.  I saw the bird one
more time shortly thereafter, then called Bill Hill, the Solems, and
Joe Hanfman.  Bill, Joe H. and Joe Byrnes all soon showed up, but we
could not relocate the bird before I had to get back to work.
Fortunately, several birders did re-find the bird later in the day, as
mentioned by Joe Hanfman in his post.

After work I headed over to Greenbridge to look for the interesting
birds that had been seen there.  In the parking area I met up with
Bill Hill and Diane Ford, and the three of us made the hike out to the
pipeline area where we set up our scopes and began scanning.  In the
80 minutes we were there we found not one, but TWO RED-THROATED LOONS,
15 Common Loons, 6 Long-tailled Ducks, 7 Buffleheads, 15 Black Ducks
and a very distant raft of small ducks that may have been Ruddies.  An
adult Bald Eagle was perched on the Howard Co. side of the reservoir.
The RT Loon was a life bird for Diane.  Great birding on an absolutely
miserable day.

Stan Arnold
Ferndale (AA Co.)