Hi all --

A really cold morning with heavy frost -- and it looked like most of
yesterday's sparrow influx had "taken a powder" so to speak, and we were
back to "normal" numbers. First day without a lingering summer visitor as
well! However, still some nice birds about and best of all, Barry flushed a
WOODCOCK from a damp wooded area, which flew off deeper into the woods,
unfortunately before I saw it! We checked out Brookside Gardens and was
dismayed to find that they had pulled up most of their Pineapple Sage  so
probably no chance of a late hummer now...(I chided them for this as it was
being used by tons of bees and butterflies...!) At the parking lot we
watched a small passage of raptors -- mostly TVs but also three Red-tails
and few Black Vultures  -- all in the space of 5-10 minutes.

Birds of interest:

Red-tailed Hawk - 3
Red-shouldered Hawk - 2
Black Vulture - 2 or 3
AMERICAN WOODCOCK - 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet - 20
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 4
Hermit Thrush - 8 (5 of them at Brookside)
Winter Wren -  4
White-throated Sparrow - 25+
Song Sparrow - 20+
FOX SPARROW - 3
Field Sparrow - 1
Swamp Sparrow - 1
Dark-eyed Junco - 20+
PURPLE FINCH - 3 (brownies)

Gail Mackiernan and Barry Cooper
Colesvile, MD