Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2000 17:40:27 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: Little Gulls on Monday MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hello all, On a quick break between field work in Mexico and tour leading in Texas, I was able to make it down to the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant to look for Danny's Little Gull on Monday afternoon. Kelly Hutton, Patty Craig, and I observed first a second-winter Little Gull, then an adult, for about an hour around 3:00 p.m. as they both fed around the eddies with 100+ Bonaparte's Gulls. Patty said she had been there earlier in the day and only seen a distant flock roosting by the sandspit to the north. While we were there we noticed some south-north movement of Bonaparte's into the area, I have been trying to tackle a large backlog of email after my month in Mexico, so may have missed some messages, but I had not noticed specific reference to two Little Gulls at the Power Plant yet (Tyler seemed to be aware that two had been seen though). In any event, two birds are (or were) present. For those not familiar with this plumage, 2nd-winter Little Gulls are essentially adult-like with a couple minor differences. Most striking, is the presence of black tips to the outer 2-3 primaries, which from above gives the effect of a black wingtip w/ mirrors as might be seen on Herring or Ring-billed. From below the dark underwings are a shade paler, and a spot of white shows up at the wingtip, again calling to mind the wingtip pattern of an adult Ring-billed or Herring. The National Geographic field guide illustrates this plumage on the pages of flying gulls, though I would note that our bird (and others I have seen) had somewhat less black in the wingtip than is illustrated. For those not fortunate enough to have the birds flying around, either Little Gull might be picked out by its smaller size, more rounded and shorter primary extension, and more capped appearance on the head. The adult is fairly easy to identify on the water since no black will be seen on the folded primaries at rest. The second-winter is trickier but you may notice the different pattern of black in the primaries - the second-winter should show black subterminal marks rather than entirely black primaries. The effect is again comparable to the pattern of a larger gull which would have spots at the tips of black primaries. Another highlight of the day was a Short-eared Owl hunting the fields around Beauview, south of Leonardtown, around dusk. Good birding, Marshall Iliff miliff@aol.com PS - Stan, was your possible Kittiwake certainly not a 1st-winter Bonaparte's? I would note that both 1st-winter Bonaparte's and Little show an "M" pattern as well and both have dark terminal tail bands. Interestingly, there were NO 1st-winter Bonaparte's present when I was there - surprising given the number of Bonies present. ============ Marshall J. Iliff Annapolis, MD miliff@aol.com ============= ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================