Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 01:26:36 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: A couple "weirdo" birds Comments: To: georgearmistead@hotmail.com, Henry Armistead <74077.3176@compuserve.com>, jfontain@lamar.colostate.edu, brian_gibbons@juno.com, Paul Lehman , Christopher Wood , HeraldPetrel@aol.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit MDOsprey, A late post...I've had scarcely a spare moment in the past week... Before leaving for Texas I noticed a couple interesting birds that I thought would be worth reporting. On 18 Feb I spent an hour scoping Skimmer I. around 2:00 p.m.. The tide was low and gulls were plentiful, but it was quite cold (though not windy). Before long I spotted an interesting gull that didn't quite fit. The size of a Ring-billed, its back was slightly darker but not as dark as a Laughing Gull (about 1/2 way between the two). It had a half-hood of streaking unlike the Ring-billeds (heavier) but not like the neat half hood of a Laughing or a Franklins. The bill was reddish with a dark ring/smudge near the tip. The bird was quite distant so I could not discern much else, but this was a very different looking bird, obvious even when sleeping. I suspect Ring-billed x Laughing and it looked identical (at a distance) to photos of one in Ocean City by Michael O'Brien. I waited over an hour in the cold to see it fly before I couldn;t take it any more. On 19 Feb I headed north and went to look for the White Pelican at Indian River. En route, about 0.5 mi after turning north on Cedar Neck Rd. in Sussex County, DE, I noticed a strange Turkey Vulture. Stopping and pulling out my camera I confirmed that this Turkey Vulture had entirely white wings (upperwings all whitish incl .coverts, flight feathers were whitish but appeared grayish from below). The head, back, body, and tail were normal in color. I took about 10 photos. Has anyone heard of a TUVU like this before? Hal Wierenga and Lynn Davidson had a Red-tailed Hawk recently that was very similar in pattern to this bird. Strange... Am now on a South Texas tour where highlights have included great Hook-billed Kites, a Blue Bunting, Tropical Parula, an unusual Townsend's Warbler, and a spectacular look at a Bobcat!! Best, Marshall Iliff miliff@aol.com Ocean City, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================