Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2001 00:10:29 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Marshall Iliff Subject: California + Glaucous Gulls etc. @ Poplar Island Comments: cc: GreatGrayO@aol.com, Georgearmistead@aol.com, lehmfinn@bellatlantic.net MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi all, Hoping to spot a Snowy Owl from a boating trip around its circumference, I encircled Poplar Island by boat today. I left my dock at 2:30 p.m. and arrived in the Poplar vicinity by 3:05 p.m. I first headed north towards Love Pt. where there were large gull and scoter flocks, then I skirted the west edge of the impoundments, wrapped around the south end, and investigated the harbor at the south tip, where there were interesting gull flocks. After leaving the harbor area I circled the east side, and then headed north along the Kent Island shore, checked the rocks around Thomas Point Light (no Purple Sandpipers), and made it back home after sunset at 5:20 p.m. The below list is broken down by county (Anne Arundel - Queen Anne's - Talbot) Common Loon - 5 - 15 - 15 Red-throated Loon - 0 - 0 - 1 Double-crested Cormorant - 0 - 3 - 1 Great Blue Heron - 1 - 1 - 5 Mute Swan - 10, 5 near mouth of Crab Creek - 15 - 20 [this species has increased on the South River, near Annapolis in the past 3 years, was not regularly present previously] Canada Goose - 0 - 0 - 100 Lesser Scaup - 0 - 0 - 2 Long-tailed Duck - 0 - 0 - 15 Surf Scoter - 0 - 0 - 350 White-winged Scoter - 0 - 0 - 30 Black Scoter - 0 - 0 - 7 females Bufflehead - 0 - 0 - 75 Bald Eagle - 0 - 0 - 1 Bonaparte's Gull - 0 - 100 - 10 Laughing Gull - 10 - 350 - 25 CALIFORNIA GULL - 0 - 0 - 1 adult [first Talbot record, notes will be submitted to MD/DCRC] Herring Gull - 15 - 30 - 140 GLAUCOUS GULL - 0 - 0 - 1 1st-w Great Black-backed Gull - 15 - 40 - 400 Forster's Tern - 10 - 0 - 0 Killdeer - 0 - 0 - 1 PURPLE SANDPIPER - 0 - 0 - 31 [surprisingly high count, all along southwest edge] Dunlin - 0 - 0 - 100 Sanderling - 0 - 0 - 25 peep sp. (Sandelring/Dunlin) - 0 - 0 - 500 Short-eared Owl - 0 - 0 - (1) [see below] The California Gull was a great surprise and gave fantastic looks at about 50 ft. for 10 minutes. It was a full adult with moderately heavy head streaking and no trace of immature plumage. While I was watching the California Gull I decided to turn around and check a second gull flock behind me, and as the flock flushed I immediately spotted the first-winter Glaucous Gull, which flew out to the mouth of the harbor. After studying the California Gull to my satisfaction (10+ minutes at 50 ft.) I headed back out to the mouth and easily found the Glaucous Gull, which was in fresh plumage with narrow tan markings on the coverts and a faint tan wash on the head, neck, and upper breast. I did get a chance to talk to a few workers leaving the island on a work boat. They said that they had not seen any Snowy Owls recently and that BOTH birds had died. They also said that they had not seen the American White Pelican anytime recently and did not remember seeing it this year. One worker did mention seeing a fairly small, brown owl along the dykes which flushed and flew away from him. He did not notice any ear tufts. As far as I'm concerned, this adds Short-eared Owl to the Poplar Island list. The California Gull represents a first for Talbot County, but may not be particularly surprising given the 4-5 records from Hart-Miller Island. Maryland has had better luck with this species than most East Coast states and boasts almost 20 records now. The records have been scattered throughout the year with no obvous peak, but perhaps a slight concentration from October-November. Best, 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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================