Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2004 10:14:29 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: John Churchill Subject: Common Black-headed Gull at Easton STP Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Hi MDOSPREY, After birding at the inlet and scoring on just one of the two Eurasian Widgeons at Eagles Nest, Ray Kiddy and I decided to stop at Easton STP on the way back to Allegany County. It was a good idea to stop because we found an adult Common Black-headed Gull. We drove in at the Barker's Landing Road entrance and drove past the landfill entrance and parked along the row of pines that separate the road from the MX track adjacent to the fenced in shooting area. We walked along the shooting area up to the barbed wire fence and started scanning for birds using binoculars. I was finished counting Canada Geese (about 600) and then started looking at the small group of gulls in the open pond. There were 30 or 40 Ring-billed gulls. after a couple of seconds of scanning the Ring-billed gulls I caught a glimpse of a bird with very dark underwings. At first I thought it was a Little Gull but I soon noticed that there was a white panel on the upperwing and that the wings were pointed at the tip (not rounded). We also noted that appeared larger than a Little Gull would have. When Ray went to get a scope to get a better look, it lifted off and headed into the blue sky. I phoned Matt Hafner and Dave Powell who we had seen earlier in OC to let them know about it. Later Matt called me back to say that they had relocated it at Tanyard (just down the river from the Easton STP). It seems reasonable that it may have been the same bird because birds have reportedly been noted moving between the two locations. Interested birders should probably keep both locations in mind if you find yourself in the vicinity. J.B. Churchill Frostburg, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================