I birded Milltown Landing WMA along the Patuxent River after work today.  It has been a very slow fall for sparrows in Prince George's County, at least compared to recent years.  The fields are all fallow and overgrown at Milltown Landing and the sparrows seem to be concentrated less in the center hedge row (where you can actually see them).  I've had four or five largely non productive sparrow trips this month to both Milltown Landing and Aquasco Farms.  However, today was a little bit better and the highlight was a lone Vesper Sparrow in the center hedge row running between the fields.  The bird perched up nicely in the open for several minutes.  Other sparrows present included 8 White-throated Sparrows, 4 White-crowned Sparrows, 7 Savannah Sparrows, 4 Song Sparrows, and 1 Field Sparrow.  These numbers are well down from recent falls, but at least I finally got a Vesper Sparrow for the fall.  Other birds present included 1 Bald Eagle, 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk, and 1 Cooper's Hawk.

A nice assortment of waterfowl had dropped into Schoolhouse Pond over the weekend.  Today at lunch there were 150 or so Canada Geese, a few Mallards, 10 Northern Shovelers, 1 Green-winged Teal, 1 Ruddy Duck, 1 Pied-billed Grebe, and 3 Double-crested Cormorants.  Gulls included 180+ Laughing Gulls and 1 Ring-billed Gull, with gulls constantly coming and going in swirling flocks.  

Fred Shaffer

Crofton, Anne Arundel