Hi William and all,
 My daughter Alli and I ventured north yesterday too, in search of the (elusive, not) BHGU. We left shortly after 11 and Alli was wondering how to dress, since we'd been out all the previous day in the cold doing the Triadelphia CBC. I said to just wear a warm vest as I didn't think we'd be leaving the comfort of the Jeep. Well, as we arrived at the Hunt Valley Center parking lot we spied a small group of gulls loafing by a large parked bus, in the outer lot in front of Best Buy. As we slowed down and approached the flock I told Alli to look for a bird with red legs, and almost as I said it she said "oh, red legs, there" and the bird was standing, magically, right in front of us. Easiest life bird we've ever gotten!

We took plenty of photos, as Alli stood through the sun roof, and there were folks there feeding the birds, so they moved around a lot. Apparently the bird was at Paper Mill Flats just before we arrived, so our timing was perfect.

PS, I was nearly as excitied to see there was a Wegmans in the mall as I was on seeing the bird!

Rick Sussman
Woodbine,MD


-----Original Message-----
From: William Leigh <>
To: MDOSPREY <>
Sent: Sun, Dec 18, 2011 8:13 pm
Subject: [MDOSPREY] FW: eBird Report - Swan Harbor Farm Park, Dec 18, 2011


All, 


 made the trek to Swan Harbor to search for the Le Conte's Sparrow this 
orning. I rose at 3:00 AM which theoretically was in plenty of time to be there 
y 8:00 but managed to lose time along the way and didn't arrive till nine. 
owever, when I arrived there seemed be lots of sparrows about  and I had no 
rouble finding the right area thanks to all the responses to my requests for 
irections. However, despite a couple of hours serach I had no luck on  the Le 
onte's Sparrow. I staked out the famous multi flora rose bush from about 9-10 
ith the scope from a distance and saw some nice Sparrows including a several 
reat looks at a American Tree Sparrow,  several Savannah's and a few Songs. 
ollowing the path around the impoundments I found  a nice variety of Swamp 
parrows some with dark grey nape and supercillium and some dramatically lighter 
n color. A Bald Eagle, Red-shouldered Hawk and Northern Harrier were roving 
bout with the NOHA making several passes right over the area where the 
eConte's has been seen.  
everal large groups of ducks were seen in flight  but I didn't spend any time 
n them as I was focused on the Sparrows. 

round noon I headed to Hunt Valley in hopes of seeing the BHGU. This was one of 
hose wonderful chases in which one arrives at the location for the target bird  
nd a smiling birder laughs and kindly points out the bird. I fumbled about for 
 bit sure the sucker would take off,  but eventually got on the bird. The BHGU 
as seen off and on during my two hour stay which was roughly between 12:45 and 
:45. I took a lot of photos hopefully a few came out half way decent. See below 
or eBird report for Swan Harbor....... 

est,  
William Leigh 
Bridgewater, Virginia 

  Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2011 19:32:13 -0500
 From: 
 To: 
 Subject: eBird Report - Swan Harbor Farm Park, Dec 18, 2011
 
 Swan Harbor Farm Park, Harford, US-MD
 Dec 18, 2011 9:05 AM - 11:05 AM
 Protocol: Traveling
 0.7 mile(s)
 12 species
 
 Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) 50
 Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca) 1
 Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) 2
 Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) 1 adult
 Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus) 1
 Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus) 1 imm
 Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis) 2
 American Tree Sparrow (Spizella arborea) 1 Great looks
 Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis) 3
 Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) 9
 Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana) 4
 White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) 1 /h
 
 This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)
		 	   		  
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