Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 13:43:29 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Jim Felley Subject: Tidal Basin news MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The recent freezing-over of the Tidal Basin apparently caused a die-off of gizzard shad. There is still ice covering almost half of the Tidal Basin, and gulls are congregating to peck at the white bellies showing through the ice. At lunch, I saw several hundred gulls, breakdown as follows: Herring Gull - the majority Ring-billed Gull - next most abundant Greater Black-backed Gull - many Lesser Black-backed Gull - at least 3 first year birds one adult Any white-winged gull at all!! None, sorry This situation bears another look, at least until the ice leaves. Elsewhere in the neighborhood A Canvasback on the Potomac at the north end of the golf course. Black-crowned Night-Herons still congregating on the Washington Channel above the 14th street bridge. Jim Jim Felley Smithsonian Institution irmss668@sivm.si.edu ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================