Jane Kostenko and I ventured over to Turner Road, in southern Calvert County, 
this afternoon to look for some reported Lapland Longspurs from late 
December. It was fairly pleasant out with little wind but several scans across 
the corn stubble fields yielded absolutely nothing. There was a flock of Canada 
Geese there straddling the fenced in field on the north side of the road just 
down from the hill and further beyond the fence into the corn stubble. This is a 
fairly reliable spot in Calvert for Horned Larks but for the second time this 
winter, we got skunked and didn't find a single HOLA much less a LALO, pipit or 
Savannah Sparrow. Joe Turner and Leslie Starr had reported a Cackling Goose from 
here last week but we couldn't even scare up that bird. The only plus was the 
yodeling Long-tailed Ducks from out on the Patuxent River. Maybe we need a good 
cover of snow (almost all of our huge 1 inch snowfall is gone) and some steaming 
horse manure like Oland Road to concentrate the birds?
 
Tyler Bell

California, Maryland