Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 23:24:18 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Lynn & Hal Subject: Re: A couple "weirdo" birds MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Marshall, About 20 years ago at Triadelphia Reservoir, Montgomery Co, I saw a Turkey Vulture that was completely normal below and snow white above....the back, wings and tail were all white on top. It was circling with others & as it turned with upperside visible it was white as a swan. When the underside was visible it "disappeared" into the kettle, looking just as normal as the others. Hal Wierenga Arnold, MD hal.lynn@erols.com ----- Original Message ----- From: Marshall Iliff To: Sent: Monday, February 26, 2001 1:26 AM Subject: [MDOSPREY] A couple "weirdo" birds > 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 > ======================================================================= ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey =======================================================================