Before the MOS Board meeting in Urbana this morning, I went to Lilypons for the scheduled pre-meeting birdwalk.  I was the only person to show up, and instead of tromping around Lilypons in the rain, Mike Welch and Barbara Gearhart generously drove me around the back roads of Frederick County to see what we could see.  Before leaving Lilypons, we had nice views of a Bonaparte's Gull hanging out with a group of Ring-billed Gulls at the pond closest to Lilypons Road.  Returning to Lilypons an hour later, the Bonaparte's was still there.  I then had a nice walk in the snow with Wayne Bell and George Radcliffe where we saw Swamp Sparrows, more than a dozen Eastern Bluebirds, and an American Kestrel among the other birds braving the heavy flakes.

Jim Nelson
Bethesda, Montgomery County