We went for a ride this AM after hitting the local IHOP for breakfast -
Auntie L has a thing for their chocolate chip pancakes. Some rare summer
birding for us- by car of course. I'm one of those poor souls that grew up
in a northern climate and could actually melt into some gross liquid form in
this nasty Maryland heat. I remember moving down here in the late 70's and
thinking how long the summer is here. It was September and I was sweating my
way around the UMD campus wondering how it could still be 85 so late in the
year. Consequently I don't go out much in July and August.

But even from the air-conditioned car with the windows shut tight so as to
keep out the heat and any bird songs, we got some interesting stuff. Started
with a COOPER'S HAWK just down the road from here on the way to town.
Sitting on a rock wall looking for a tasty sparrow for breakfast.

I think it was on Pleasant Valley road that a WILD TURKEY crossed in front
if us. I stopped but all we saw was weeds moving where it slipped down hill
toward a creek.

Then on some other road, I forget which one - my favorite birding route is
called wandering aimlessly - I spotted a bird on a wire that might have been
a DICKCISSEL.

Got me to wondering why every single one of these birds spotted in Maryland
has to be reported and respotted . It dawned on me that I had probably never
really looked at the range map for these things.

This is a Midwestern bird that is spreading east. That makes it something of
a newcomer to MD. No wonder they attract some attention. It evolved out on
the plains with the buffalo and has been spreading out ever since. There are
some skips in its eastern range. We find it in farm fields in western MD,
Carroll County thru Washington County, and there are some in southern MD and
over on the eastern shore. And we marvel because it's kinda pretty with all
that yellow in the face, the black throat and the rusty patch on the wings.
And it sings a lot.

But there are larger questions to ask about it - like where did they perch
before there were phone wires? Sorta like the old one about where Barn Owls
nested before there were barns.

Jerry Tarbell
Pondering and keeping cool in Carroll County

"Like a bird on a wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way
 to be free"
Leonard Cohen

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