Birding around Springs

On my solo birding adventure I had decided I would start by walking around maidstone to see what birds I would see today, I saw the typical birds; American Robins, American Crows, Tufted Tit Mice, various different Sparrows, Cardinals (both male and female), and a few Blue Jays. As well I so what I thought was just another American Crow but on further examination, I noticed it had a different color eye then the crow. I did what any birder would have done during this situation and flipped through my "Peterson Field Guide" to figure out type of bird it was. I was leaning towards it being some type of Grackle but I was unfamiliar with the common names so I flipped to page 392 and BAM there it was, the Common Grackle. I educated myself on the differences between the two birds before continuing my birding expedition. I had another exciting moment when I thought that I saw a Lark Sparrow, I quickly looked at the map in my field guide to find out that Lark Sparrows don't occur in this region of the United States, disappointed I looked back to find the little sparrow, but it had flown away. In hindsight I figure that it was in fact a Swamp Sparrow. Coming away from this birding experience today I feel successful, I saw a few new birds including the Red-Winged BlackBird, which I have not seen this fall / winter. As well I noted a few Cowbirds, Black-Capped Chickadees (or a Carolina Chickadee, I had a hard time figuring out the differences).