Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 08:44:45 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "J. B. Churchill" Subject: RT Loon ? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Hi, I thought I would mention a loon I saw from Eagles Landing CG in Worcester County on Tuesday June 13th. It was far away (much closer to Assateague than the CG). My impression was that it was a Red-throated Loon because the bill was small and thin and the head shape was definitely wrong for a common loon (very rounded head shape). It was NOT in alternate plumage and the plumage that it was in looked very worn and faded. I considered Pacific Loon since the gray on the face appeared to almost cover the eye but I am leaning towards Red-throated. There did not seem to be sharp demarcation between the dark gray upperparts and the whitish underparts like you would see on a basic plumaged Red-throated. The gray on the neck was a thin line running down from the crown on the back of the nape only. If you are out this way, keep this bird in mind and if you see it (or even if you don't) let me know what you think of it. It is late for Red-throated Loon according to the Yellow book although it doesn't look all that unlikely. J.B. ====================================================== John B. Churchill, M.S. Home (304) 292-5072 GIS Analyst Work (304) 293-4832 West Virginia University ext. 4456 Natural Resource Analysis Center http://www.nrac.wvu.edu/users/jbc ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================