I had fun birding Cecil, Queen Anne's Talbot and Caroline Counties yesterday.  My main focus was LAPLAND LONGSPURS ( I affectionately call them Spurs).  Plenty of AMERICAN PIPITS and HORNED LARKS on Sparks Rd.  off of Rte. 313 (Thanks to Sean for alerting about this great spot!) , but didn't have any luck with Spurs.  Did have a RED TAILED HAWK feasting on a MALLARD, which would have made a great photo-op, but the hawk flew off as I rode by.  His friend, another RED TAILED HAWK, watched close by in a nearby tree, as he devoured the prey.  Another first of year bird was a couple of AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS on Route 313, north of Sudlersville.  I finally had my LAPLAND LONGSPUR on Segars Corner Rd and Lewistown Rd.  in Cordova, Talbot County.  This intersection is off of Covey's Landing Rd, as mentioned in previous posts.  There were hundreds (this is no exagerration, I've never seen so many
 HORNED LARKS!)  I thought to myself-there has got to be at least one Spur in there somewhere-and sure enough after sifting through the Larks, I finally had a Spur.  I had met Jim Green at the Sparks Rd. location and he alerted me to several Vesper Sparrows he had seen off of Hackett Corner Rd near Millington in Queen Anne's County.   But the dwindling light didn't give me too much time to search for them and I didn't have any luck.  All in all a nice day trapsing the back roads in search of snowy birds!     

Lin Just

Colora, Md