Date: Sun, 6 Oct 2002 21:29:12 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Matt Hafner Subject: Harford Birding 10/6 - Franklin's Gull Comments: cc: harfordbirds@harfordbirdclub.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I spent the day birding Harford county because my year list was behind Jim Stasz's!! I started by listening to night migration at my house in Bel Air. Lots of Swainson's Thrushes going over plus a few Hermits. I tallied 3 Gray-cheeks for a new yard bird. The surprise bird of the night was a Golden-crowned Kinglet which gave a very distinctive "see-see-see" call. I started daylight birding at Harford Glen, likely my favorite spot in the county. As the sun rose, it became evident that last night's flight was dominated by "winter" birds. Myrtle Warblers, both Kinglets, and White-throated Sparrows were everywhere. In the midst of all the Myrtles, I found 2 Cape Mays, 2 Black-throated Greens, a Pine, a Black-throated Blue, and a late Bay-breasted. In with all the White-throats I found my first Junco of the season. Thrushes were represented by 2 Swainson's and a Hermit. A Lincoln's Sparrow was in the hedgerow along the river. Rose-breasted Grosbeak and Blue-headed Vireo were also present and 3 Green-winged Teal flew by as I was leaving. After a lunch break at home, I headed to the Perryman area. Though the Land Trust pond was devoid of waterfowl, the area surrounding held birds. I added Parula and Black-and-white to my warbler list, plus more Black-throated Greens, and another Black-throated Blue. Also had a first of the season YB Sapsucker. The BGE fields along Chelsea Rd held lots of Sparrows. Mostly, Savannahs and Fields, Swamp and Song were mixed in. As were Western Palm Warblers. My next stop was Swan Harbor Farm where I was hoping the new impoundment would start holding water. Not yet, but that didn't discourage the sparrows. There are close to 100 Savannahs in the grassy impoundment. Sorting through them, I found a Vesper, 3 Bobolinks, a Meadowlark, and a flock of 15 Palm Warblers (1 Yellow, the rest Western). A flyover Horned Lark adn a pair of Kestrels rounded out the list. On to Tydings for low tide. There were simply a lot of birds there today. After scanning the flats several times for shorebirds, I turned to ducks. I found 4 Gadwall, 2 Blacks, 3 Green-winged Teal, 2 Blue-winged Teal, and a Pintail in the with the hordes of Mallards. 10+ American Coots were around the marina. After scanning for ducks, I turned my attention to gulls. Diligent searching produced a Lesser Black-backed Gull that I believe was in juvenal plumage. It was very fresh with all the markings well-defined and simply a pretty bird. While making numerous scans of the flats over the next hour, several birds made brief appearances to make the wait worthwhile. A lone Snow Goose flew over high with a large flock of Canadas. A Merlin spent 15 minutes chasing crows over my head. A winter-plumaged Horned Grebe (very early and very surprising!!) made a brief appearance. Singles of each Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs also made brief stops on the flats. The best bird however didn't appear until my sister had called and told me we were having dinner soon. I decided to take one last scan of the flats before packing it up. I came across a very small gull facing directly away from me. It was an obvious 1st winter Laughing/Franklin's type gull. It was smaller than the nearby Laughers and had a distinct white nape between the hood and gray back. I thought this was a characteristic of Franklin's, but couldn't remember so I quickly ran to the car to get Sibley. The gulls hadn't moved in over an hour so I thought it was safe. Wrong. They all got up and flew as soon as I got to the car. I spent the next 20 minutes trying to find the bird with no luck. The small size and white nape with defined black half hood all confirmed my suspicions of Franklin's. Even though it wasn't the longest of looks, still good enough for state bird # 330. Very nice way to end the day. Matt Hafner College Park, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================