Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2001 16:42:04 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Gail Mackiernan Subject: Five Little Gulls at back River today Hi all -- While I was at an MOS Records Committee meeting at the Smithsonian, my husband Barry did a naughty thing and went up to Back River. There he saw FIVE Little Gulls -- two in full summer plumage, two adults in winter plumage, and one subadult in winter plumage. Two of the birds were above (upstream) of the Eastern Ave. bridge and three below, seen from the parking lot of the restaurant behind the Royal Farms gas station. The best vantage point for above the bridge is parking in shopping mall lot and crossing road to edge of river across a small open grassy area. Caution - it is wet and mucky underfoot. There were about 700 Bonaparte's Gulls in the sewage treatment plant and about 2000 on the river. Of these, he couldn't adequately view about 800 of them because of distance, so who knows what else is out there. Certainly Bonaparte Gull numbers are building in this area so it is a good time to visit -- March and April have yielded, besides Little Gulls and the 1990 Ross', Common Black-headed and Franklin's Gulls. Gail Mackiernan Colesville, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================