Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2004 16:15:57 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Michael Bowen Subject: Iceland, Glaucous Gulls at Frederick Landfill; lark flocks still have longspurs, bunting; Rough-legged Hawk in Frederick County Comments: To: voice of the Naturalist Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed About the only good thing about this persistent cold weather is that it does push birds down from the north. At the Frederick County Landfill (Reichs Ford Rd., a few miles south of Frederick) today at 1:30 p.m. I saw one 1st winter ICELAND GULL and one 1st winter GLAUCOUS GULL. They were sitting on the snow near the active landfill operations together with hundreds of Herring and Ring-billed Gulls and a handful of Great Black-Backed. I looked in vain for any Lesser Black-Backed. The Glaucous Gull occasionally joined Ring-bills in risking life and limb to examine trash that was just about to be 'dozed over. The landfill is open every day of the week except Sunday, until 4:30 p.m. I understand from Frederick County birders that the gulls generally don't start coming in until 10 in the morning. There is a convenient cul-de-sac road on the left before you reach the fill area where a birder can watch in peace and safety without getting in anyone's way. The landfill people seem remarkably friendly to birders. Let's not do anything to make them change their views! About 11 a.m. this morning, the large HORNED LARK flock was still feeding actively on the freshly manured field on the north side of Oland Rd., Frederick County between Rte. 85 and New Design Rd., where others have reported them recently. The larks numbered over 100, and I counted at least 20 LAPLAND LONGSPURS and a single SNOW BUNTING. About 11:30 am. I had a light-phase ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK crossing Cap Stine Rd. just north of Ballenger Creek Rd. (still Frederick County), being harassed by crows. Just a few miles south, over the river in Loudoun County in Virginia, I had 3 more Rough-legs in an area where VA birders have reportedly seen up to 8. Good birding. Mike Bowen Bethesda MD D. H. Michael Bowen (Mike) 8609 Ewing Drive Bethesda MD 20817-3845 Tel/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 ======================================================================= =========================================================================