[MDOsprey] Pt. Lookout, MD, 12/17/99
Tyler Bell (bell@acnatsci.org)
Fri, 17 Dec 1999 13:45:45 -0500
I was at the causeway from about 8-9 am 12/17 scanning through a flock of about 50 Bonaparte's Gulls feeding with about a dozen Red-breasted Mergansers and several Common Loons. The flock strayed to within about 30 feet of where I was standing on top of the rip-rapping making the scope useless. I could check out each individual bird easily with binoculars and there were no individuals that matched the criteria described by Patty Craig yesterday. It was dead flat calm with the sun to my back so conditions could not have been better for viewing.
I was down at the point yesterday around 1 pm with Patty and Greg Miller and the flock of Bonaparte's Gull feeding about a mile offshore was substantially larger than the flock I saw feeding this morning. There were also a large number of Northern Gannets feeding well offshore yesterday on the bay side of the point but I didn't take time to look at/for them this morning as the Boney flock was my only concern.
Good luck to y'all who are going to give this bird a shot over the weekend.