Hi all -

Sorry this is a late posting but yesterday evening was very hectic! We went
over to Schoolhouse Pond in the afternoon of the 27th, and failed to find
the Mew Gull or either of the adult white-winged gulls. We did find a
first-winter bird that we initially ID'd as a THAYER'S GULL, it had rather
cafe au lait primaries with a definite "venetian blind" effect between inner
and outer webs and appeared somewhat brownish, but not as obvious a Thayer's
as the bird in DC last winter.

However after some perusal of the new Gull book and later, looking at a few
(rather poor) photos we took, we are not so sure it is not one of these
darker Kumlien's Gulls. Fred Shaffer was there and he also was puzzling over
it. Both the Gull book and Sibley indicate that separating paler Thayer's
and darker Kumlien's can be a bit challenging.

It was pretty cold and windy yesterday, maybe someone can get a better
series of photos and we can sort this guy out!

Gail Mackiernan and Barry Cooper
Colesville, MD