Hearing that storms moved thru the western counties Friday night, we struck
out for Garrett early on Saturday. They got 3" of precip the night before
but unfortunately (global warming?) it was all rain. Kinda ruins a good day
of  downhill skiing. I expected about 3' of fresh powder. We are talking
about Garrett County here: it always snows up there don't it?

So we were stuck with birding since the rain made my streams virtually
unfishable until today.

We got most of the usual Garrett County specialties that Dan Haas mentioned
and one VERY good one. Note that I am copying Dave Brinker in on this email.

We got to Finzel before 9 AM and walked the usual trail out past the pond
and on back along the woods. On the way back we heard a GROUSE drumming off
to our left and took a trail that probably leaves the nature conservency
property and eventually takes you out to an open area that sort of overlooks
Frostburg. After spotting 3 TURKEYS out there I noticed a large raptor
circling off to the east. My first thought was eagle but after borrowing
Laura's 10X bins (mine are mere 8x) I rejected it based on the head shape
and wingspan. It had its tail fanned most of the time but when it finally
folded it in I was sure I was looking at an Accipitor bigger than a coopers.
Folks, this is only the 3rd GOSHAWK I've ever seen and the first 2 were at
hawk watches where we had others to help us. (We also had something zoom
across the road in front of us in the Adirondacks a couple years ago that I
think might have been one but we lost the bird before we could get any field
marks.)

The bird sailed around up there for quite a while before it sailed off to
the south. I think it was an immature bird and it was missing a couple of
primaries, but I am 99% sure we had a Gos. Kinda makes the trip.

We also had HENSLOW'S SPARROW at the old Combination Road site and
GOLD-WINGED WARBLER at Legislative Road. We missed some good stuff like
Hermit Thrush, but we did get a ROSE-BREASTED today along New Germany Rd and
as usual I got a kick out of the tons of BOBOLINKS, MEADOWLARKS and other
great field birds up there. Along Swamp Road we got a great look at a CANADA
WARBLER. Today we heard but couldn't find a CERULEAN near where we had the
Grosbeak.

As usual a great trip and yes, the fishing was better than I expected today.
It only took 3 days for the streams to settle down to a fishable level after
the heavy rains. But it was worth the wait.

Jerry Tarbell
back in Carroll County and wondering why I was thinking about skiing when I
don't even own any ski's. But I do have a nice fly rod.

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