Not the wrong bird

Rick Blom (rblom@blazie.com)
Tue, 17 Feb 1998 21:56:42 -0500


        Jim Stasz is exactly right. Mark Hoffman's photos are of the bird
pointed out to him by the original observers. They match, feather for
feather, pix taken on other days. The chances that different birds are
involved is minuscule.
        Yes, there were other birds approaching the pattern seen on the
"Common" Gull, but all of them had characters associated with the tail that
distinguished them. I saw at least three that could easily have been
mistaken by observers uncertain of what were the diagnostic characters or
who were unable to get a close enough look, but they were not the same and
they were not among the ones we looked at photos of.
        Of course, to restate something from an earlier post: If there were
three or four birds with this identical tail pattern then one is condemned
to argue that Common Gulls occur at Conowingo in flocks or that the tail
pattern is not diagnostic.

Rick

"A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for
other people."
Thomas Mann


Rick Blom
rblom@blazie.com
Bel Air, Maryland