In the 1980s the National Zoo had a flock of at least 30 Silver Gulls in its
outdoor aviary in Washington DC. Many had no bands of any sort. One escaped
and turned up at Hains Point with the vast Ring-bill flocks in 1981. At the time
the zoo said they were missing a bird. Silver Gull was seen a few more times
roaming in DC in subsequent years. If you ever visited that aviary, with its
swinging doors and long lines of children streaming in and out, escape seems
plausible, or even inevitable. As for no birds escaping, sometime in that same
decade there was a well publicized story in the Washington Post about how the
zoo's Red-billed Magpie had escape, and was visiting a backyard bird feeder.
Its friend and companion, the Pinyon Jay, was used to lure it into a trap.
Dave Czaplak |