Intermedius Lesser Black-backed Gull in MD

Miliff@aol.com
Fri, 12 Feb 1999 05:02:18 EST 

Hello all,

With all the excitement at Conowingo, I have fallen terribly far behind in
chasing birds in other parts of the state.  Tried to do a quick cram session
today and catch up...

I made my third trip down to Saint Mary's county today to look fr an unsual
gull that Patty Craig had alerted me to.  She, Marty Cribb, Kyle Rambo, Tyler
Bell, Jane Kostenko, and several other MD birders had seen the gull and were
of the opinion that it was an _intermedius_ Lesser Black-back.  Patty sent me
a photo via email a couple days ago that showed the birds long wings and dark
mantle.  I saw the bird well today and concur with their ID.  To my knowledge,
it is the first such bird for MD and is certainly the first one photographed.
I shot almost a roll both at rest and in flight today.

The bird in question is a full adult.  At first glance (naked eye) I passed it
off as Great Black-backed because of the darkness of the mantle (even though I
was expecting a dark-mantled bird).  It was quickly obvious though that this
was a smaller bird, smaller billed etc.  Structurally I found it like a fairly
large _graellsii_ Lesser Black-backed, and I believe it is likely a male.  The
head was white with almost no streaking except a tiny bit above the eye and
crossing the crown, and a few thin streaks on the nape.  The orbital ring is
bright red, th bill is brightly colored with a prominent red gonydeal spot,
and the legs are grayish-yellow.  The back is very close to the color of a
Great Black-backed Gull (none were present for direct comparison) or perhaps a
tad lighter.  The back did contrast with the primaries, but not obviously.
The white primary tips were very small.  The outermost primary has a very
small white mirror restricted to the inner web of the feather.  The 4th
primary in falls even with the tail tip.  In flight the inner wings and back
barely contrasted with the black primary tips.  

The gull did not chum in though quite a number of Ring-billeds came in to
pretzels (all I had to offer).  It is, however, extremely approachable.  I
walked within 10 feet or so and the bird hardly seemed nervous.  It spent most
of ts time perched on the pilings around the Sandgates restaurant on the
Patuxent River.  It did send a small amount of time feeding along the rocky
shoreline to the north, and could be viewed from the roadside as it flew up
and down the shore.

I watched the bird from 8:00-9:30 a.m. and it was still present when I left.
It has been present throughout the day and is usually easy to find, though it
i not always there (I have missed it at 10, 2, and 3:00 on previous attempts).

To get there, go n. from Rte. 4/Rte. 235 intersection on Rte. 235.  Go through
Hollywood, past the turn for Greenwell State Park, and watch for South
Sandgates Rd. on your right (about 8 mi from intersection?).   Take that road
out to the water and as your hit the river and just after a small bridge, is
the large Sandgates parking lot on your right.  Look for the gull on the
pilings.  S. Sandgates Rd. is on the DeLorme atlas and should be easy to find.

OTHER BIRDS:

Had two Brown-headed Nuthatches .4 mi from the end of Rousby Hall Rd. in the
Solomons area of Calvert County.  This is their northern limit on the Western
Shore, and there may be as few as two in the county.  They were first found
here this year on the Calvert Winter Bird Count in early January, but have
probably occurred in the area continually since before 1958.  For a while in
1991-1992 here was a feeder that had one (several ?) with regularit.

Had one first-winter Glaucous Gull at Lake Reddington at 3:30.  No sign of the
California Gull though.

and...yesterday 2/10/99 Michael O'Brien and I observed, and I photographed, a
first-winter Herring Gull showing the tail and rump pattern of one of the
European races (i.e. _argenteus_ or _argentatus_).  Otherwise it looked
essentially like our Herring Gull.  This one had an almost all dark bill and
had replaced its juvenal scapulars giving a barred appearance to the back.
This was of course in addition to Thayer's, California, Icland (adult), Lesser
Black-backed, and, oh yeah, the (apparent) Slaty-backed.  There have been some
serious rumblings about splitting our Herring Gull (_smithsonianus_) from the
European subspecies, so those at Conowingo should keep an eye out.

Best,

Marshall Iliff
miliff@aol.com