Hi Folks,

I birded southern AA County this morning, arriving at Sands Road Park
at 6:30 a.m. while it was still mostly dark.  I was greeted with
several WILD TURKEYs gobbling, with the remainder of the morning
chorus being made by Canada Geese and Field Sparrows.  Not much else
of note during my hour walk there.

I was planning to spend much of the morning along the Patuxent River,
but a visit to Selby's Landing (PG Co) revealed a very flooded river,
meaning the possiblity for waterfowl and shorebirds was almost nil.  I
instead went to Herrington Harbor.  Here I walked to the end of the
long jetty, and the almost calm wind left the water on the bay nearly
flat, allowing identification of ducks across the bay.  After 30
minutes of scoping, among the hundreds and hundreds of Surf Scoters,
Long-tails, and Buffleheads I was able to find three BLACK SCOTERs,
two males and a female.

As I was leaving Herrington Harbor I got a phone call from Elaine, and
she informed me she had just seen a new yard bird.  She was looking
out the back door and saw a bird land that she assumed was a robin,
but a look through the binoculars revealed a WILSON'S SNIPE.  She
watched the bird for several minutes and even got to see it fan its
little red tail.  When she went out to try for a better look it
disapeared among our brush piles.  When I returned home in the early
afternoon I took a walk around the periphery of the yard and was
surprised to to flush the snipe from a different section of the yard.
Over the fence it went, probably not to be seen again.  Since we
participate in Project Feederwatch, this will make an interesting
addition to our weekend tally.

Also in the yard today was a FOX SPARROW and a pair of OSPREYs playing
in the gentle breeze aloft.  We've also been entertaining a singing
PINE WARBLER over the past few days.

It was great to be out in the 70 degree weather today.

Stan Arnold
Ferndale (AA Co.)