Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 21:35:36 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "George M. Jett" Subject: Bonaparte's Gull in DC Comments: To: SMAS Comments: cc: Jlstasz@aol.com, Marshall , voice , Greg Miller MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Folks My daily drive over the Frederick Douglas Bridge produced a July Bonaparte's Gull today. About 7:30 AM as I approached the mid section of the bridge I spotted a small gull, smaller than the Ring-bills that have been around for a couple weeks. I noted the bird was very white on the underwing, an all white belly, and no black in the primaries. The bird was short-tailed, had two black spots on the head, and flapping faster than Ring-bill's do. The bird was heading north to south. As the bird crossed the bridge I was able to see the upperside of the primaries briefly and confirmed the white wing wedge in the primaries. I don't recall seeing a summer Bonaparte's Gull before. I checked the Yellowbook to see if I had been hullicinating and saw that they can be hear but are rare. Neat! While I am at it, last night about 8:40 PM the Whip-poor-will sang for a couple minutes around the house in Waldorf. Enjoy your birds. George ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey =======================================================================