--part1_0.ca23ccdb.25678099_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hello all.. I feel like I am trespassing. As Kurt mentioned, since 1996 I have been part of the group that counts gulls at Hains Point for the DC Count. Typically it is Bob Abrams and I, with John Bjerkie showing up a bit later. The following is the reply I sent to Charles Heath off the list. Since I knew nothing about Charles or his birding, my response is intended for a beginner. This is also clearly based on only three dates of observation, with Laughing Gulls only being present in big numbers in 1998. --part1_0.ca23ccdb.25678099_boundary Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Disposition: inline Return-path: BlkVulture@aol.com From: BlkVulture@aol.com Full-name: BlkVulture Message-ID: <0.59e18ee0.2566d2d4@aol.com> Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 11:20:36 EST Subject: Gulls To: cheath@alexandria.adroit.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Windows AOL sub 45 Charles... Should someone with a bit more knowledge about this phenomena chime in, they may be more correct than I am. Since 1996, I have counted the gulls for the DC Christmas Bird Count. It is held in mid-December. We count from the south tip of Hains Point, near The Awakening statue. What you are talking about is pretty accurate of what we saw last year, and every year when you take out one factor. The variable is a species of gull called Laughing Gull. 1998 was the only year we had large numbers of them, about 2000. Mid-December is getting late to see them. These are the birds that are flying low to the water, often in strings of single file birds. They are from any distance without binoculars, uniformly dark on the back. Last December we had a couple thousand of these birds stream out of the Anacostia River. They continued to fly down river. The other gulls you are seeing are most likely Ring-billed Gulls, with Herring Gulls mixed in. Ringed-billed will heavily outnumber Herring. These birds fly higher over the river, and emerge from both the Anacostia, and further up the Potomac. There have been up to 30000 Ring-billed in one day. Where they are going I am not sure. There will be big rafts of Ringers and Herrings on the river between the airport and Alexandria. The Laughers seem to go further. Their origin is even more unclear to me. Gulls like to roost on water. I suspect that as the sun begins to set, these birds move toward the river from the fast food joints that they are foraging at. That would be the case for Ringers and Herrings. I have no idea where the Laughing Gulls are coming from. Todd Day Jeffersonton, VA BlkVulture@aol.com --part1_0.ca23ccdb.25678099_boundary--