Hi everybody:  

     Ron Gutberlet and I braved the arctic-like conditions on Sunday (1/23) and spent a full day birding in Garrett County and then working our way east making several stops in both Allegany and Washington counties. Before daylight there was a 1/2 inch of new snow on the ground and the flakes were still coming down until just after sunrise. We had quite a few stops where we saw or heard hardly any birds at all but were more than compensated with some very pleasant surprises at other locations.

     Our initial stops in Garrett County were Finzel and Piney Reservoir. At Finzel we parked just beyond the ballfield and walked out to the pond beyond the frozen wetland. Our only birds of note were a pair of overhead Cedar Waxwings and a handful of Black-capped Chickadees. As we expected Piney Reservoir was completely frozen over and our best bird was an American Tree Sparrow at a nearby feeder.

     We then headed for Russell Road (Garrett Co.) but approached the road through the Allegany County towns on Lynaconing and Moscow.  Our strangest encounter was to see a flyover WILD TURKEY cross over the road and apparently land in the backyard of a house. Once on Russell Road we drove north very slowly and had nothing to show for it. We then came down Michaels Road and found a small flock of 13 HORNED LARKS. Once we came to the intersection of Russell Road we decided to make a second run on Russell Road. We saw a perched raptor across the valley and as we got out binocs on it it flew up and we were looking at a light phase ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK. We watched it slowly move away from us and then at one point it was being harassed by a pair of Common Ravens. We reached the top of the road and drove down the same road a 3rd time. At the intersection of Michaels Road we had an American Tree Sparrow. Then Ron spotted a woodpecker that ended up being a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (an uncommon wintering bird in Garrett). We also had a Northern Mockingbird at this same location.

We then headed north on Rt. 36 and just before approaching Burning Mines Road Ron had spotted an interesting raptor. When we jumped out of the car we were looking at another ROUGHLEGGED HAWK - This one was a dark phase. There were also several Common Ravens flying around as well. We had one Brown Creeper on Burning Mines Road.
Further north on Rt. 36 we pulled into the Park and Ride just before Interstate 68 and we saw our 3rd ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK of the day- this one was another light phase.

We then headed for the Terminus at Cumberland to look for some of the birds that Mikey Lutmerding reported a week ago and some others saw during the week. We pulled in and parked just on the other side of the RR tracks. Before too long we had found the male COMMON GOLDENEYE. There were approx. 200 Canada Geese (we found no cackling) and 180 Mallards.  There were also 21 Bufflehead and 7 Hooded Mergansers. We walked about 1/4 mile down along the River and then Ron spotted the male Northern Pintail. We then headed back towards the car. We were within 100 feet of the car when overhead flew a Rock Pigeon and close behind was a large gray accipiter. Just after it passed over us it did a U-turn and flew back over the railroad tracks and a standing train and dropped down out of sight.  It was a NORTHERN GOSHAWK! Ron mentioned that a year or two ago he had a N. Goshawk in this same location.

We then went to North Tract where we saw absolutely nothing. we took Messick Road back towards Rt. 68 and turned down Frazier Lake Rd. where we saw a Yellow-rumped Warbler. Our next stop was Rocky Gap St. Pk where we encountered another completely frozen body of water and did see 3 Red-tailed Hawks before moving on. 

Driving east we stopped at Big Pool in Washington County and found yet another frozen body of water. We had a Sharp-shinned Hawk fly over the parking lot at the Rail Trail.  We then drove to Clear Spring where we headed east towards Hagerstown on Broadfording Road looking for Horned Lark flocks, raptors, etc. The best we came up with was a FOX SPARROW below a feeder several miles east of Hagerstown. We spent the last several minutes behind the poolhouse at Sedgewick Way making a weak and unsuccessful attempt to see if the Loggerhead Shrike refound by Brad Lanning's friend several weeks ago was there.

As we drove back east we realized that we had seen ice fishermen in three counties today: Garrett (Piney Reservoir), Allegany (Lake Habib) and Washington (Big Pool). Ron had 3-4 new county birds for the day and I had 6 with the Common Goldeneye in Allegany my 106th closeout. Somewhat surprising misses for the day was the fact that we had no sightings of either Vulture.

Jim Green
Gaithersburg, MD

work in moderation, BIRD IN EXCESS!!!