This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------E038C8E2210334CEF93E8B39 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Chatters and Ospreyers: I just got this note from Greg Miller. Thought he wouldn't mind the forward. -- Good Birding! The probability of a given Tyler Bell event occurring is inversely mailto:bell@say.acnatsci.org proportional to its desirability. California, MD http://www.audubon.org/chapter/md/smas/ --------------E038C8E2210334CEF93E8B39 Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline X-Lotus-FromDomain: INTERNET From: Gregory.B.Miller.AT.~MKT2PO1%BGECCMAIL@bge.com To: bell@say.acnatsci.org, clralph@gateway.net, jlstasz@aol.com, miliff@aol.com Message-ID: <85256713.00532D5D.00@smtp1.bge.com> Date: Tue, 9 Feb 1999 09:34:35 -0500 Subject: Slaty-backed...YES! Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline I buzzed up to Conowingo, MD this morning. I was there from 7:15-7:45am. Lots of gulls. Didn't have time to do the numbers justice. The probable Slaty-backed was standing on the first set of rocks just to the right of the breakwall. It was there the entire time I was at the dam. Also had 2 adult Lesser Black-backeds, a single 1st winter Thayer's, and a 2nd winter Iceland. There were about 20 other birders there, some must have been the gulling elite. I only heard mere mumbles while looking at the Slaty-backed and ho-hums when I called out Thayer's and Iceland. I guess I'm still not too jaded as I was pretty happy with the other birds, too. Oh, well. I'll probably never grow up to be ho-hum *or* an expert. <grin> >From my limited experience with Slaty-backed (2 birds last year--Attu and Gambell--and a fair number in Japan in 1990), this appears to be a "good" bird. The tertial crescents are impressive on this individual and even at that distance, the bird was easy enough to pick out with binoculars. I presume others will post on the sighting this morning. I do not have access to MDOsprey or BirdChat from here. -Greg --------------E038C8E2210334CEF93E8B39--