Folks I remembered late last night that I had forgotten to post the two adult Lesser Black-backed Gull at the same landfill that I had the Franklin's Gull. Sorry. Early this morning trying to relocate the Sedge Wren in Indian Creek near Benedict, MD I had a subadult male Blue Grosbeak. Sorry, no Sedge Wren. Just wet feet again. I also have a male Red-breasted Nuthatch collecting shelled peanuts from my platform feeder and storing them in trees around the property. Hopefully, he has decided to spend the winter. Need some better pictures of this species. Cheers. ----- Original Message ----- From: George M. Jett <gmjett@erols.com> To: <mdosprey@ARI.Net> Cc: <>; Marshall <>; voice <> Sent: Saturday, October 16, 1999 7:33 PM Subject: [MDOsprey] Franklin's Gull > Folks > > About 1:30 pm today I finally clear up one of my MD nemesis birds. I saw a > single first winter Franklin's Gull at the Brown Station Road Landfill in PG > county (DeLorme p.47, D6). The landfill is open Sunday from 7:30 am to 4 > pm. If the flock of about 12,000 birds stays, just be patient. It took me > two hours to isolate this bird. > > My first clue was the tail pattern as the bird flew by. The band does not > go completely across the tail and is much less bold than a first winter > Laughing Gull. The outer tail feathers are white to the tip. The head is > very sooty being darker on the back then the front, the bird is daintier > then the approximately 9000 laughing gulls it is travelling with, and the > all black bill is shorter and thinner. The mantle is a nice uniform soft > gray and the flight feathers were darkish black/brown throughout the > secondary and primary feathers. > > Hopefully, the pictures will turn out. > > Goshawk is my next target bird. > > Good Birding > > George >