I'm enjoying the give and take on the Common Gull issue enormously. Many of us saw this bird but did not see the field marks which some are saying are diagnostic. Those who are pronouncing are basing that on photographs taken by Mark Hoffman and possibly by others and on videotape taken by Bob Ringler, and possibly by others. Those of us who were not privileged to participate in those discussions are somewhat left in the dark. If Mark or anyone else can provide (on a loan basis) a few good prints of the bird in question, we could scan them in and make them available at the MDOsprey website for a period of time to allow everyone here to join more fully in the discussion AND in the learning experience. Making pictures of puzzling birds available on the Internet is becoming a more and more widely used approach to eliciting comments from a broader audience. See the Frontiers of Bird Identification listserv. We clearly have some extremely accomplished birders here in Maryland, but there may be birders in Europe, or on the West Coast, say, who may have had direct experience with the type of bird that was seen at Conowingo Dam. What better way to elicit comments than to post the pictures on the Internet? Of course, if comments aren't desired...... Norm Saunders =============== Norm Saunders Colesville, MD osprey@ari.net