I just got back from seeing the Am. golden plover at Fulton Pond - life bird!  Many thanks to Bob and Susan Hood, who came along with a scope.  I could certainly see it, and tell what it was, with bins, but the scope views were beautiful.  The dark cap and white eyebrow, and white face, when it turned toward you, really showed up, and so did the pattern of black and golden brown on the back.  (Even on a cloudy day, we all thought there was a golden cast to it.)

The plover was on the far side of the pond toward the left, with 4 killdeer (I saw 3, but Susan spotted a 4th.)  They were mostly up on the grass, but the plover spent more time down on the bank among the plants where it was very hard to see if not moving, even when you knew where it was.

I had run into the Hoods earlier, at Elkhorn Lake, where like me they did not see the snow bunting.  They (unlike me) walked all the way around the lake, and had winter wren, and good looks at a sapsucker.  We all saw a very close-up great blue heron perched near the dam, and a r-c kinglet in the shrubs near there.  I saw 3 black vultures perching on the far side of Broken Land Rd. as I was leaving, and had had a red shouldered hawk earlier.  Also Bob called our attention to a cormorant flying over--it was amusing to watch it turn its head back and forth as if contemplating the situation, before deciding to keep going.

Patricia Wood
Silver Spring MD

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