Jack Saba and I spent about an hour and a half looking at the Patuxent
River marshes behind Mount Calvert, in Prince George's County.  This is
the historic site just north of Jug Bay.

The star of the show was the Louisiana TRICOLORED HERON, found almost
immediately after we arrived.  We watched it off and on for about 15
minutes before it walked out of sight.  A very nice bird in this part of
the state; my only other county record was a bird flying downstream
from Lake Artemesia on August 20, 1994.

This is a lovely marsh that deserves more coverage than it gets but most
of the thousands of birds are distant.  There are so many birds and they
have so many places to hide that seeing what is there takes times and it's
impossible to get an accurate count; an estimate from yesterday evening is
between 500 and 1000 snipe.  The yellowlegs, gulls, blackbirds and
Green-winged Teal also number in the hundreds.

We DID NOT see either the Ruff or the Franklin's Gull but from what I've
been told, both were seen yesterday; the Ruff only when the water was high
and only at close range.  Many more shorebirds are apparent in the evening
than midday.

We did relocate the small, adult, black-backed gull.  Today, the bird was
on the Prince George's side of the river, closer than it was on Thursday
but the shimmer and the view were worse.  I'm still unconvinced of its
identity.  I will start off by stating I'm no expert at identifying gulls.
I will also admit that both the bird's size (comparable to Herring Gull)
and its obvious yellow legs argue convincingly for Lesser Black-backed.
But arguing against lesser is the bird's bill.  I think of a Lesser's bill
as appearing dainty, smaller than a Herring Gull's bill.  To my eye, this
bird lacked that impression and although it also lacked the massive
appearance of a Greater's bill, its bill consistently looked thicker than
those of the nearby Herring Gulls.  In addition, the bird's back seemed
too dark; I think I should have been able to see more contrast between
it's mantle and black wing tips.  Unfortunately, all my experience with
Lesser's is from the winter when they have heavily streaked heads; color
differences can distort the impression of size and of course all birds
show a range of features.  Most likely, this is just a Lesser Black-backed
Gull near the large-billed, dark-backed extreme, but if anyone else sees
this bird, take a close look at it and let me know what you think; I'm
bound to learn something.  And there is always the outside possibility
that it could be one of the other black-backed gulls.  Does anyone know
Shrimpy's current whereabouts?

Saturday, 10 April, 2004

Dave
David Mozurkewich
Seabrook, PG MD USA
mozurk @ bellAtlantic.net

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