Re: Slaty-backed Gull at Conowingo -Reply

rick (rblom@blazie.com)
Fri, 12 Feb 1999 07:59:58 -0500


>There were three of us there on Saturday when the gull was found, but the one
>who found the Slaty-backed Gull, giving the old "Get on this bird," was Rick
>Blom.
>
>THANK YOU RICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
>Mary Ann Todd
>Dave Czaplak

        Yeah, yeah. There are few folks so adept at tooting their own horn
as I am, but the truth is I did not have the foggiest notion what I was
looking at and fully expected Dave and Mary Ann to tell me it was "just
a...". If I had been alone none of you would have ever heard of this bird
and it would have gone into the mental files as another bird at Conowingo I
could not identify (there are hundreds). It was Mary Ann, or Dave, or both,
who first raised the possibility that this was a Slaty-backed, a bird I
have neevr seen and wouldn't know if it landed on me. Enough of this
already...it was at best a cooperative effort (and that gives me more
credit than I deserve). And it was Dave who, while we were watching the
bird. suddenly said "HOLY (typical birder expletive deleted), that's a
CALIFORNIA GULL next to it!" That was a moment that'll stick with me a
while.

Rick

"A great many people now reading and writing would be better employed
keeping rabbits." Edith Sitwell


Rick Blom
rblom@blazie.com
4318 Cowan Place
Belcamp, Maryland 21017
(410)575-6086