Date: Fri, 18 Oct 2002 18:03:46 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Michael Bowen Subject: Black-headed Gull at Hurlock Comments: To: Voice of the Naturalist Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed All: At around 1: 30 p.m. today, Friday, October 18, we birded at the Hurlock Sewage Ponds, Dorchester County, MD. Top bird was a BLACK-HEADED GULL in adult winter plumage. It was perched on a post in the water in the corner of one of the cells, close to where all the dikes come together. We had seen it flying earlier, and thought it to be a Bonaparte's Gull, but a closer look revealed the orange-red bill with dark tip and dark red legs. Other birds at Hurlock were: 6 DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT 1000 SNOW GOOSE (a few "Blue Geese" among them, but not Ross's) 1000-2000 CANADA GOOSE 100 NORTHERN SHOVELER 1000+ RUDDY DUCK 1 LESSER SCAUP (male) 1 LESSER YELLOWLEGS 1 PECTORAL SANDPIPER 2 DUNLIN 2 LEAST SANDPIPER 20 LAUGHING GULL 10 RING-BILLED GULL 1 AMERICAN COOT (we looked for others without seeing any!) 4 SAVANNAH SPARROW 10+ TREE SWALLOW Earlier in the day we were at Pickering Creek Audubon Center, Talbot County, MD, brought to our attention by local birder Les Roslund in his posts to MDOsprey (thanks, Les from us birders west of the Bay Bridge!). Top birds here were: 20+ GREATER YELLOWLEGS 20+ LESSER YELLOWLEGS 3 SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER 1 LEAST SANDPIPER 5 PECTORAL SANDPIPER The above birds were in the new pond area along the entrance road to the center. In the wooded area along Pickering Creek we had 1 SWAINSON'S THRUSH 50+ YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER 4 RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS 1 GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET There was a single EASTERN MEADOWLARK singing in a tree close to the main area of buildings. Good birding. Mike and Joy Bowen Bethesda, MD, and Dewey Beach, DE D.H. Michael Bowen (Mike) 8609 Ewing Drive Bethesda, Maryland 20817 USA Telephone/fax: (301) 530-5764 e-mail: dhmbowen@yahoo.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================