Dave called me (THANK YOU!!) and let me know he found the pelican, but also wanted to mention some other good birds he found...
I have been looking for a Common (Eurasian) Teal here for about 5 years now, and I usually scour the green wings but have not seen one. To my knowledge there has not been one reported here until today. I started my search from Mt Calvert, overlooking the river at about 4:15pm, and looked for about 25 minutes before I got chased out at about 4:40pm (the staff had to lock the gate then, and asked me very nicely to leave!). It was very birdy but I had no luck scouring through the hundreds of ducks and gulls with my scope (probably about a thousand in all).
So I went home (next door) and tried looking some more. To my great surprise, among the 100+ mixed flock of dabblers below the railroad bed, BAM! -- there it was!
It is a striking male in full alternate/breeding plumage, with a heavy solid white horizontal bar completely across the top of the speculum. Gorgeous!
What a day at Jug Bay!
Cheers-
Jeff Shenot
Croom MD
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