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Subject:

Silver Gulls escaping

From:

Mary Ann Todd

Reply-To:

Maryland Birds & Birding

Date:

Thu, 25 Nov 2004 14:01:08 EST

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