Date: Sat, 30 Mar 2002 06:42:00 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Peter Lev Subject: Back River-- California Gull MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=Windows-1252 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT In March a young man's fancy turns to gulls. So, I visited Diamond Pt. Rd. and Island Pt. Rd. yesterday afternoon (both are near the Back River Sewage Treatment Plant). Present were about 500 Bonaparte's Gulls, but no unusual small gulls. However, among a group of Herring Gulls was an adult gull with the California Gull beak-- red spot, thin black ring, light-colored tip. Other features of this gull-- very top of wings (near neck) was slightly lighter gray than rest of wing; a dark crease behind the eye; legs were yellow-gray rather than pink. Other sightings of interest-- 18 Northern Shovelers seen from Island Pt. Rd. 1 singing Pine Warbler on the Nature Trail in front of the Sewage Treatment Plant. NOTE: I have seen thousands of California Gulls in the West, but I am not used to pulling them out of the mix of East Coast gulls. In general, I am still learning my gulls (and will probably be saying this for the rest of my life). Peter Lev Baltimore Bird Club Towson, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================