I visited Blue Mash for the first time today and was greeted by an immature Red-tailed Hawk lifting off from the parking lot carrying his breakfast rodent back into the woods. I saw about a dozen Fox Sparrows and five or six Black-capped Chickadees along the trails. The first pond you come to from the parking lot on Zion Rd. held a single Gadwall, three pairs of Hooded Merganser, 32 Ring-necked Duck and 30 or so Canada Geese and 4 Mallards. One of the other ponds had a single Pied-billed Grebe. The most numerous bird of the day was American Crow. I'd estimate that upwards of 300 flew in loose flocks overhead from south to north, chattering all the way, from the time I arrived just after 7 AM until almost 8. Sparrows were plentiful-Junco, White-throated, Song, Savannah, Swamp, a couple Field, one Towhee, and good numbers of Fox. I posted a couple shots of one of the Black-capped Chickadees and one of the Fox Sparrows (the only one that didn't dive for cover as soon as I appeared). They're viewable here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/27381338@N03/5193507576/

Mark Johnson
Aberdeen, MD