Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2000 20:50:19 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: Black-tailed Gull at Assateague today 7 Oct Comments: To: lehmfinn@bellatlantic.net, HeraldPetrel@aol.com, obrienm@algorithms.com, GreatGrayO@aol.com, georgearmistead@hotmail.com, Henry Armistead <74077.3176@compuserve.com>, BlkVulture@aol.com, jfontain@lamar.colostate.edu, brian_gibbons@juno.com, pgaede@ngs.org, patteson@interpath.com, Christopher Wood MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit MDOsprey, A quick heads-up. Jim Stasz and I found and photographed a Black-tailed Gull today sitting on the beach at Assateague Island, MD, at about 6:15 p.m.. We watched it for a full 45 minutes until it flew a small ways offshore to roost with Laughings and Ring-billeds at 6:58. This bird IS NOT easy to get to. It was in the ORV (Off Road Vehicle) Zone of the island near crossover #11 which is 7.75 mi south of the pavement on Assateague. A four-wheel drive pass is required to visit this portion of the island and costs $60.00 at the National Seashore Headquarters. To go into the off-road vehicle zone you obviously have to have a high clearance 4-wheel drive vehicle, but also need to have a board, a rope, a shovel, and a jack in your car in case of mishap. Jim has a Subaru Forester which has handed well in his four trips to this area since August. If you are considering buying the pass you will be pleased to know that it is good for 1 year and that the ORV zone of Assateague is one of the most interesting, yet most rarely visited, portions of MD. Several good shorebird areas are accessible only by using this pass, and driving the beach is always a good way to find gulls, terns, and shorebirds. We will be trying for the bird again at dawn tomorrow and may have room for an extra passenger or two. Feel free to call me at my new place in Ocean City (410-289-2160) for more info or recent updates after tomorrow's attempt. Since we saw the bird go to roost offshore, it stands to reason it will be in the same place come morning. There was a great amount of bird activity offshore with large flocks of gulls (Herring, Laughing, Ring-billed, Black-backed), terns (Royal, Caspian, Common, Forster's), Brown Pelicans etc. feeding in swarms on small fish 100-400 meters offshore. In the evening we had three different Parasitic Jaegers attending these groups. I expect the Black-tailed Gull was part of these feeding assemblages and may continue to remain in the area as long as the fish activity continues. This bird was apparently a second-alternate molting to third-basic bird (at least, it was identical to the photo identified as such on page 480 of the December 1998 issue of Birding - Bangma and Lethaby's article on ageing Black-tailed Gull) and had a prominent hood of dark streaking, rather like the extreme dark heads shown by some California Gulls. This head pattern was very different than the minimal streaking shown by adults. There were some dark marks in the primary coverts also indicating immaturity. The bill color was greenish yellow (with a black subterminal band, a red tip, and a small red spot proximal to the black band). Best, Marshall Iliff miliff@aol.com Annapolis, MD PS - other birding on Assateague today was average. A slug of winter arrivals hit with the first big numbers of Myrtle Warblers. We had a Lark Sparrow in the ORV zone of Assateague, a Golden-Plover at shorebird areas in the ORV zone, and about 15 species of warblers on Assateague and the adjacent mainland, including a Connecticut at the same location I had one on Tuesday. A Lincoln;s Sparrow at Bayside campground in the morning was a year bird for me. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================