Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2001 17:32:19 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: BH Gull & RT Loon in Harford, Little Gulls still at Back R. MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi all, I joined a small crowd yesterday morning at Back River and patiently waited around for the Little Gulls. Activity was slow at the Royal Farms store but when we finally crossed the road to look at the Diamond Point flats area from under the billboard on Eastern Ave. we had looks at an adult and a 1st-w LITTLE GULL. The two birds kettled high and then flew far downriver, but shortly thereafter Bryan Monk spotted an adult basic LITTLE GULL at the Royal Farms store. Excellent scope views were had by most who were still present before that bird headed back upriver at 10:15 a.m.. Also had my first CASPIAN TERN of the year, a FORSTER'S TERN, about 3 N. ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOWS, 40 BARN SWALLOWS, and 500 TREE SWALLOWS. Rick Blom had a CHIMNEY SWIFT, the first I have heard about this year. After Back River, Matt Hafner and I traveled up to the Lapidum boat landing, on the Susquehanna River below Conowingo Dam. No Little Gulls or Eared Grebes there, but we did pick out a 1st-w BLACK-HEADED GULL among the 200+ Bonaparte's. The bird hugged the Cecil County shoreline and never got very close, but was distinctive in its larger size and browner covert feathering compared to the Bonies. The underside of the primaries on this first winter were not extensively dark, but stood out as quite different from the surrounding bonies. The only merganser on the river there was a female RED-BREASTED and there was another CASPIAN TERN here. Matt and I checked Lakeside Ponds quickly where we had our first GREEN HERON of the year, along with 5 migrant Savannah Sparrows, a Greater Yellowlegs, 3 N. Rough-winged Swallows, a Great Egret, 10 Clouded Sulphurs, and a Mourning Cloak. From there Matt and I returned south to scope the waterfowl from Hoadley Rd., Harford County. Birding here was slow but we had 25+ COMMON LOONS, 1 PIED-BILLED GREBE, 2 HORNED GREBES, 10 RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS, 5 LESSER SCAUP, 25 RUDDY DUCKS, 1 CASPIAN TERN, and 2 MUTE SWANS among more common species. Best bird was a winter adult RED-THROATED LOON, Matt's first for Harford. Matt agreed that he owes me bigtime for finding him his state Black-headed Gull and a Harford County bird in the same day...expect something phenomenal from the UMCP campus soon! On my way home I returned to Back River where I scoped from Diamond Pt. Rd. in the excellent afternoon light. One basic adult and 2 1st-winter LITTLE GULLS were feeding quite close in and putting on a great show. The two first-winters differed very slightly in plumage (one being more extensively dark with a broader carpal bar) but while I tried, I could not come up with any individual characteristics so that I could compare notes with Barry. I feel like I saw two different adults over the course of the day for 4 Little Gulls total. Nice... Good birding, Marshall Iliff miliff@aol.com Annapolis, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================