I tried for about 45 minutes this afternoon but had no luck. There werefew gulls present (only about 350-400) while I was there from 3-3:45, despite the busy work of the landfill equipment. The birds that were present were very active and busy feeding.
The best bird seen there was actually a Canada Goose. I've seen many individuals with varying degrees of leucistic plumage, but never a melanistic one. It was only partially melanistic, with its head entirely black (no cheek patch). When I first saw it I got hopeful that I had something else but as I got closer and got a better light angle, I could see it was only a Canada.
I also looked at Schoolhouse Pond and Jug Bay, in all spending about 2.5 hours looking at gulls and waterfowl. I had no luck finding any white-winged gulls. Best bird was a single Lesser Black-backed adult, at Jug Bay. In all I only saw about 1225 gulls, which seemed low to me.
Better luck next time!
Jeff Shenot
Croom MD
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