Maryanne Dolan and I were among the frustrated today. As the line of cars
slowly moved forward, we were past the gap and approaching one of the myriad
pokeweeds along the hedgerow when we heard someone say "there it
is"--unfortunately, we were too far back to see it, and after we got in
prime viewing position, a Sharpie flew across the hedgerow. After that we
never saw more than a White-throated and Chipping Sparrow in that spot. We
left to try for the hawk and saw a hawk-shaped bird dive down onto the farm
field in front of those silos, but could not see it from the road. We went
back to look for the sparrow briefly, this time trying the gap in the
hedgerow, but although there was lots of sparrow activity, the star of the
show failed to appear. 

It is a strange situation to be car-bound and to hope that when the bird
decides to pop out that we'll be placed just right for it. Maybe I'll get
lucky another day.

Pat Valdata
Elkton