Santa was good to me - looks like I got the "better timing" for Christmas, just as I asked!  

Today I got the PURPLE SANDPIPER at Herrington Harbor.  It was fabulous - I just stood there in the middle of the jetty and watched it feed along the rocks.  It came towards me, at the water's edge, then past me and behind me .... not 4 feet away.   Did you know they could swim?  I didn't know that - but it did, very happily, from time to time.  As I left, I was drifting from the center of the jetty, towards the edge.  The bird popped up and looked at me, less than 2 feet away. It was unworried until I pulled out my phone and tried to get a "close up" photo.  It flew off then, giving me an opportunity to see it in flight as well as hear it.  It only went  to the next jetty, so hopefully it will be findable for awhile yet. 

I also got that dratted South River Bridge PEREGRINE FALCON.  I was so thrilled, I circled the bridge six times, enjoying it over, and over ... and over... 

On Shady Oaks Road, the reported horned lark AGAIN eluded me (I see I should have asked for "perfect" timing, not just "better" timing).  But a flock of grackles near the end of the road produced a fabulous BRONZE GRACKLE.  There was just no question that this bird was different - even in the shadowed first look.  When it flew, along with a purple grackle, into the sunlight, the difference was striking.  That's a lifer for me. 

I also had a nice RED-SHOULDERED HAWK in Edgewater, on a wire by Rt. 2, greedily tearing apart and eating a meal.  The bird really shone in the sunlight - just beautiful!  How thoughtful of it to park itself next to a traffic signal, and how lucky I was to get a red light. 

The HOODED MERGANSERS are back at Big Pond at Mayo Beach, and have been reliable there over the past couple of weeks (except when I took 2 fellow birders there to show them off, of course).  

I did NOT see the Common Goldeneye reported earlier at Herrington Harbor, although there might have been some mixed in with the SCAUP.  It was a huge flock and it was pretty far away - I did not check out every bird.  I suspect there were other species mixed in (pretty sure there were a few CANVASBACK in there as well). 

There were a lot of birds at Herrington Harbor, most only identifiable with a scope.  Some of these included a huge raft of SCAUP - both GREATER and LESSER (confirmed by another birder and a hunter), hundreds of BUFFLEHEAD, LONGTAILED DUCK, one COMMON LOON, TUNDRA SWAN, various GULLS, CROWS, MALLARDS and one lone NORTHERN SHOVELER and a KILLDEER, to name a few.  

At Dent Road in Shadyside, two BROWN THRASHERS came to my noise-making (I don't know how to pish - I just make noise).  They flew to the tree right next to me, then the tree right over me, took a good long look, then flew away.  They were really close - fun for me, and (I hope) entertaining for the birds. 

It was a good day - 47 species in the county ... really very good, considering some of the common birds (mourning dove, my feeder Towhee, my feeder Hermit Thrush, house finch, gold finch, downy woodpecker and the common-around-these-parts Bald Eagle plus a few others) were all missing. 

Joanne


Joanne Howl, DVM 
West River, MD