Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 23:55:33 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Matt Hafner Subject: Thayer's Gull(s) at Beulah Landfill MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Today I had one, probably two, Thayer's Gulls at the Beulah Landfill in Dorchester County. Both birds were 1st year birds. One was very brown overall, slightly paler, smaller, and more neatly patterned than Herring Gulls. The primaries were brown with a neat pale edgings. I never saw this bird flying and couldn't get a photo as it was way up on the hill. The other gull was very pale and was perfectly plumaged for Thayer's. However, it seemed a little too large to me. It was sitting with Ring-bills, so I'm sure that had something to do with it, but it still looked too big. I was able to photograph this gull on the ground and in flight. I can't think of anything it can be other than a large Thayer's. There was also a very cooperative first-year Iceland Gull that I was able to photgraph right in front of me. Suprisingly, no adult Lesser Black-backs. I did see atleast 3 1st-years and 1 2nd-year. Hurlock had tons of Swans and Canada Geese. Ducks included: Ring-necked, Lesser Scaup, Ruddy, and Shoveler. After lunch, I picked up Zach Baer we refound a pair of Rusty Blackbirds that he found in Centreville. Then we went over to Sparks Rd in Caroline County. We listened and watched as about 400 Horned Larks flew over in several smaller flocks. By being patient and waiting about 30 minutes, we were able to see and hear atleast 3 Lapland Longspurs and 1 Snow Bunting. Three was our highest count for Longspur at one time. Several flocks flew over and had one longspur, but it was difficult to tell how many were coming back around. We spent the last 30 minutes of light checking the Canada Goose flocks along 309, but couldn't find a White-fronted. Matt Hafner Bel Air/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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================