Date: Sat, 4 Nov 2000 18:14:50 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Stan Arnold Subject: :Tundra Swans, pelicans & mystery gull in Dorchester Co. MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks, Visited Blackwater NWR today, and the Tundra Swans are just in--about 20 of them on the river across from impoundment 3C along the Wildlife Drive. Pintail, shoveler, and Ruddy Duck populations are on the rise for the season. Also there today: Great Egret--10 Snowy Egret--1 Black-crowned Ngt Heron --9 Black-bellied Plover--2 Forster's Tern--12 Hermit Thrush-1 White-crowned Sparrow-1 imm A drive down Hooper's Island produced 14 Brown Pelicans, perched on the pound nets out in the water to the west of the road, viewed just after crossing the last big bridge (a mile or two before the end of the road). There are some places to pull off there and set up a scope. I also ran into Levin Willey in the village of Fishing Creek; he was looking at the gulls roosting on the piers, and asked me to take a look. There was a dark-mantled gull that would have been a perfect Lesser Black-backed, except for the pale pink legs. It was paler, and noticably smaller than the Great Black-backed Gull perched next to it. The bill matched that of the Great Black-back. Does anyone have any ideas? I took a couple of photos, just in case. Stan Arnold blackrail@earthlink.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================