Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2004 23:01:33 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "Paul P." Subject: Gulls Gulls Gulls in DC (longish) Comments: To: Janni Ottavio , Shawn Padgett MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit While friends were enjoying the Razorbill show on the coast, I spent the weekend banging my head against that imaginary wall called DC Birding. OK, I'm being facetious, it was a very enjoyable weekend as I closed out both Flicker and Cowbird on my DCxMonth list (we take our successes where we can get them). Kestrel & Phoebe were not as cooperative, but I've got a few more weeks to find those rare and elusive species and close them out too. The real action this weekend was the Washington Channel and Tidal Basin, where the gull numbers have been high - well over a thousand, and probably approaching 2,000 at times. I spent parts of Fri, Sat & Sun sifting through, but the best I could find were LESSER BLACK-BACKEDS - at least 3 adults and 1 1st winter. There are probably more Lessers, but it's hard to keep track. At one point I may have had a California, but it was too distant and I never got enough on it. And when it comes right down to it, I had to rely on Dave Czaplak to find the good birds. This afternoon he called me to report a THAYER'S and a GLAUCOUS GULL. I was home at the time, but got back there quickly, and spent lots of time looking at all the gulls. Rob Hilton & Lisa Shannon joined us later, and I understand John Hubbell and Laura Anderson showed up a little later too. The white-winged gull that Dave called a Glaucous actually had us quite perplexed, as it had all the field marks of a Glaucous, but was the size of a Herring. Glaucous should be much larger. It was in 2nd or 3rd winter, with a full, light gray mantle and lots of light gray feathers in the scapulars, wing coverts, and tertials. The bill was mostly a yellowish-pink color with a black subterminal band and a pale tip. It had a light yellow eye. We toyed with the idea of it being an Iceland, given the size, but in the end concluded Glaucous (at least I think that was our conclusion - I'll let Dave speak for himself) because of the large bill with pronounced gonys, mean/flat-headed look, lack of medium-dark gray in the primaries (which a Kumlien's Iceland should be showing at this age - our bird had mostly white primaries, with a hint of gray in the outer web) and light eye (although Kumlien's can apparently have a light colored eye on rare occasion). We tried to get a handle on the primary projection, but this was very difficult to judge. In the end, I don't think it was as long-winged looked as Iceland tends to be. Given the size, it seems possible that it was the barrovianus subspecies, though I don't have any field experience with that one so I'm not ready to make that call. We got pictures, so will try to get them posted. After much searching, we found the (or perhaps a different one - I'm not sure) Thayer's. It looked a lot like a first winter Herring, but was very fresh and an overall pale cafe au lait color. The tertials were barely (if at all) a shade darker than the coverts, and were fairly well patterned. The folded primaries looked pretty dark brown, but had well marked pale edges, and could just barely be seen to get paler on the inner web. The more definitive look came when it flew, and the silvery white underwing all the way across, except for brown tipped primaries was evident. The ventian blind-look of the upper wing could also be seen, though difficult to see well. It had an all dark bill & eye, and had that more dove-like look shared with Iceland (eye set back, rounded head). In the end, I think we were comfortable with these id's but the birds certainly didn't make it easy. Again, I will defer to Dave, Rob & others on their opinions, as they may have more to add once they've had a chance to check references. Other birds of note this weekend include: PEREGRINE - at least 1 bird is back on the RR bridge over the Potomac. I first saw it Thursday (hadn't seen it since early Jan), and then again yesterday and today. This morning it took off from the bridge and flew right over the inbound span of I-395 - at eye level, right in front of my car. It was quite impressive, and I'm glad traffic was light as a fast moving vehicle would have taken it out. Once across the span, it dropped below it and I lost sight (I was driving, after all). ORANGE-CROWNED & NASHVILLE WARBLERS - these two birds continue at the Asian Garden of the Natl. Arboretum. Paul DeAnna (note correct spelling of last name - I completely mangled it last time) and I had wonderful looks at both. The Nashville continually picked at the undersides of coniferous needles, and upon closer inspection, we believe it was feeding on scales. We also saw some flying insects, so perhaps it was catching some of those too. At least one RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH is hanging out in the Asian Garden too. In a patch of hollies in a different part of the Arb I found a small owl pellet and some white wash, but couldn't find an owl. The number of LESSER SCAUP at the mouth of the Anacostia is quite large (several hundred), but they were too distant to pull out anything unusual. There was a scattering of COMMON MERGANSERS on the river too. And last but not least, a GRAYLAG GOOSE was with Canadas in the Anacostia River Park. Presumably an escape, I didn't think it was worth alerting the troops on that one. Good birding, Paul Pisano Arlington, VA ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================