[MDOsprey] Time for Buff-breasted Sandpipers...

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Howdy All!

And now, for the next addition to the Comp List <drumroll...>
Buff-breasted Sandpiper.  Yup.  These birds are now moving South across
the continent.  They've already showed up this past week in the
Carolinas (must have passed right through Maryland...).  No, I haven't
seen them yet this year, but now's the time to be looking for them. 
Time to be looking at sod farms, plowed fields, and wide open areas
with very short grass.

I'm now physically relocated to Hollywood, Maryland in St Marys County
and working too many hours (14+/day).  Hopefully, the hours will wind
down as migration picks up. :-)  My new yard list is off to a decent
start with 21 species, the best of which is a Northern Bobwhite.  I saw
a solo dark-mantled gull with my naked eye that may have been the Kelp
Gull (I live 3 miles downriver from Sandgates), but it was a view
without bins or scope.  The bird was molting and was missing a primary
in the right wing (about P6).  I've tried relocating the Kelp Gull at
the Sea Breeze a couple times over the weekend for a confirmation, but
without success.  Who knows?

Two interesting gulls at the Sea Breeze this weekend included a near
adult Herring Gull with a pale butterscotch-colored chest (must have
into some good food?) and a sub-adult Laughing Gull with a wing pattern
slightly resembling a Sabine's Gull...ahem...no, sadly it was *not* a
Sabine's, but the pattern was certainly unique for a Laughing Gull--the
secondaries were almost entirely white and the innermost primaries were
widely edged with white--is this a partially leucistic Laughing Gull?
(that'd be my guess).

BTW, I've got my photos back from Ocean City, July 16, when Marshall
and I found a Laughing Gull with a bright orange bill (about the color
of a Royal Tern).  I'll scan the pictures and post them as soon as I
have a chance.

later,

Greg Miller
Hollywood, MD
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