Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2004 21:44:51 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Robert Ringler Subject: Glaucous Gull in DC 2/21/04 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable This afternoon (2:30-4 PM) I visited the Tidal Basin, Hains Point, = and West Potomac Park to look at gulls. I was joined by Denise Ryan. = Viewing conditions were extremely difficult due to the high winds = creating a heavy chop on all bodies of water. There were not many gulls = on Hains Point, just scattered flocks of Ring-bills with a few Herring = and Great Black-back. There were about 2,000 gulls on the ball fields = of West Potomac Park. The vast majority of these were Herrings with = some Great Black-backs and Ring-bills. Another 1,000 birds were in and = around the Tidal Basin. Denise first spotted the immature Glaucous Gull = on the boat dock. It had some brownish markings on the body and tail = but the mantle appeared immaculate white which made it difficult to age. = I believe it may be a worn first-winter or second-winter bird starting = transition to summer plumage. Size seemed normal for a Glaucous, = slightly larger than the Herring Gulls with it. Sorry I couldn't study = it more or get any pictures; the bird did not stay long. We also saw at = least one adult Lesser Black-back in the basin. Bob Ringler Eldersburg, Md ringler@qis.net =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D =========================================================================