Date: Sat, 1 Nov 2003 20:08:21 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: David Mozurkewich Subject: PG Franklin's Gull In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII This morning, Saturday, November 1, there was a first winter Franklin's Gull loafing on the mudflats at the northeast corner of Oxen Cove, PG county. The Franklin's Gull was in a flock of 1 Great Black Backed Gull, 1 Herring Gull, a couple dozen Ring-billed Gulls and a few hundred Laughing Gulls. Also present on the flats were Killdeer and Dunlin. Anyone interested in chasing this bird will want to be there while the tide is low enough to expose mudflats. Low tide is at about 8 AM tomorrow morning. My guess is the tide should be low enough to support lazy gulls until at least 10 since Lynette Fullerton and I saw the bird this morning about two hours after low tide. Access is either from the Oxen Hill Children's Farm (last Maryland exit on the beltway before the Wilson Bridge) or from the north end of the Oxen Hill Hiker/Biker trail. The former has easy driving directions and is followed by a pleasant, under-birded walk through the farm, down the hill then north along the hiker/biker trail. When in doubt, bear right. This walk is about 45 minutes if you treat it as you would a forced march. The other access involves a 10 minute walk, but finding the entrance to the trail is non-trivial. It is located between tall fences surrounding DC village and the DC metro canine training field. Access to this area is from I295. Take the first exit north of the beltway (for the Naval Research Lab), turn left BEFORE the traffic light at the end of the exit ramp. Pass the DC fire department training facility, take the first (only?) real road to the left. Once you pass the stop sign (after stopping of course), keep an eye to the left looking for the paved trail. Along the trail, when you get to the foot bridge over Oxen Run, you can see the mudflat and birds to your right, but don't stop here. Continue along the trail. There is a spot with an unobstructed view of the mudflat where you also have good morning light. Good luck. Dave David Mozurkewich Seabrook, PG MD USA mozurk at bellAtlantic.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================