Hi Folks,

I made the rounds through Anne Arundel County today, finding the
subject birds along with White-crowned Sparrow, Sapsucker,
Meadowlarks, and Soras.

I started a bit late this morning, waiting for the air to warm, but it
was still 39 degrees when I got to Wooten's Landing at 8:30.  It was
very birdy there, with an imm WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW being about my
best find, and also a first of season YB SAPSUCKER.  My most
interesting find, however, was after returning to the parking area and
finding Fred Fallon there, so we chatted a while.  This is the first
time (in a dozen or so visits) that I've ever encountered another
human being at this location.

My next stop was Sands Road Park, less than a mile to the south.  Here
I did a clockwise circuit around the periphery of the huge field.  Not
more than 150 yards from the entry road (to the left) I found a VESPER
SPARROW, in the company of a couple of Songs, Savannahs and a Field.
This bird had the boldest eye-ring of any Vesper I'd ever seen.  I
don't know if this is where Jim Green found his Vesper the other day.
As I turned to walk along the south edge of the field, I was surprised
to see a flock of WILD TURKEYs flushing from the grassy hillside into
the nearby woods.  I counted 14 of them, but think I missed a few.
This is exactly where I heard my first turkeys of the year early on an
April morning.  A YELLOW PALM WARBLER was my only warbler.  Having
found only one meadowlark during my circuit around the edge, I decided
to hike across the middle of the huge field, and ended up flushing
eleven MEADOWLARKs.

Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary was enjoyable in the beautiful fall
weather.  I had four SORAs calling (responding to hand claps) between
the blind and the end of the railroad trail.  Also, about 3/4 of the
way down this trail I counted eleven RUSTY BLACKBIRDs feeding from the
path, all but two of them being very brown fall females, the other two
being glossy males.

Herrington Harbor now has dwindling numbers of gulls, and the only
terns were a single FORSTER'S and eleven ROYALs.

In the mid-afternoon I met Bill Hubick and Rob Ostrowski for some
birding at Dent Rd.  It was painfully slow, especially compared with
the excitement from this time last year.  We did have one potentially
good bird as we listened to the chip notes of what was likely an
Orange-crowned Warbler, but we never saw the bird and felt there was
enough doubt to let it go.

Back home, Elaine had a beautiful LINCOLN'S SPARROW for the second
time this week.  We've been entertaining a pair of RED-BREASTED
NUTHATCHes for much of the past week as well, and last Monday Elaine
had a BLUE-HEADED VIREO in the yard.

Looks like another nice day tomorrow.

Stan Arnold
Ferndale
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