Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2001 08:39:17 -0500 Reply-To: paulydia@erols.com Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Lydia Schindler Subject: mew gull from the Voice MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit John Pilgrim has okayed my reporting this message--Lydia Schindler for the Voice of the Naturalist Hi, Sorry I didn't report this yesterday, but it wasn't until I got home that I realised how rare this species was in DC... At around 4pm Monday 15th Jan, I was walking along the west side of East Potomac Park towards the point, casually scanning gulls on the railings and grass with the intention of trying to find the Thayer's Gull. Just north of the children's play ground, a quick scan through one such group yielded an obvious Mew/Common Gull. I have only been in DC since August 2000, so thought this may be as common an occurrence as finding a Ring-billed Gull with Common Gulls in England. Unfortunately, whilst scrambling for my field guide to check status and whether this was a European or N. American Mew Gull, the bird flew off without me noticing. I tried for the next hour or so to refind the bird, but with no luck (there were many gulls in the water off the point, and I didn't have my telescope with me). The bird was instantly obvious to me as a Common Gull, with its slighter frame, slightly smaller size, and rounded head. It had a dark eye and a noticeably short, thin yellow/green bill (also lacking the bulge of Ring-billed) with a dark subterminal band. Head streaking was light (and thinner than the coarse streaking on the accompanying Ring-bills) and confined to the rear of the head and neck. Legs were yellow, but dull rather than bright. I can be contacted at work on 202-533-9534 or on this e-mail address. John ******************************* John Pilgrim Research Associate Center for Applied Biodiversity Science Conservation International 2501 M Street NW Suite 500 Washington DC 20037 USA Tel: ++202-533-9534 Fax: ++202-331-0570 e-mail: j.pilgrim@conservation.org ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================