Date: Sun, 17 Dec 2000 23:37:17 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: David Mozurkewich Subject: Frederick County Highlights In-Reply-To: <004501c06882$4bdebe60$69e57ad1@p166> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sunday December 17 Although the Snowy Owl put on a lovely show this afternoon, it was almost certainly not the rarest bird in Frederick County. And no, I am not talking about longspurs and buntings. The surprise of the day was in a field along Lily Pons Road. Mixed in with thousands of Ring-billed Gulls was a Laughing Gull. Are there any other late-December records for western Maryland? Although further east, this species is staying later and becoming more common every year, it's still a good find on any local CBC, except, perhaps, DC. But, since I rarely cross the fall line, I should not be considered an expert on bird distribution in western Maryland. At the time I realized this was a good bird, but how good didn't sink in until later. Unfortunately, it was pretty far away and I didn't take the time to look at it in the scope. To keep Phil and Marshall happy, in flight, the underwings were darkish with no obvious contrast at the tips. On the ground, it was obviously smaller and darker backed than the other gulls in the field. It's head lacked a half-hooded appearance. In flight, there was no obvious white in the wing tips so other identifications (eg. Franklin's Gull) seem unlikely. Dave David Mozurkewich Seabrook, PG MD USA mozurk@bellAtlantic.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================