No sign of the Amwhite pelican - has anyone else seen it lately?

Yesterday I went out with Fred Shafer to look for winter birds at Selby's
Lndg and Mt Calvert.  No luck loooking for uncommon passerines, I think the
corn stubble in the airfield is not conducive to attracting buntings,
longspurs or open-habitat winter sparrows, but I don't know.  We looked at
the river, and found one adult lesser black back gull with some ring-
billeds and herrings about half up Jug Bay.  A long distance from our
vantage, but still easy enough to identify the bird.  We then went to Mt
Calvert, where we found no passerines there either (only looked briefly).
We moved on quickly to the large mixed flock of gulls.  We looked pretty
hard and found another (or possibly the same bird) adult lesser-bb gull, a
couple great bb's, and not anything else except r-billeds and herrings.
Then after abbout 40 minutes, Fred found a first winter GLAUCOUS GULL, it
was the first one I've seen!  A beautiful bird that we got great looks at
both resting and flying.


I went out again today for another try.  I did not see any other birders
out, but wish I had.  The glaucous gull is still around (or else I saw
another from same age class, in same location as yesterday).  I found it
easily today and saw it above the RR at Billingsley marsh (PG shore) at
about 2:00, resting with about 250 gulls (ring-billeds and herring).  I
watched it with great views for about ten minutes, until they all left and
flew south when an eagle scared them away).  I left and then noticed a
large group (400-500) from my backyard; they were resting at north end of
Jug Bay (below RR); I watched them long distance (!) from about 3-4:30.  I
scanned them for over an hour before I finally found the bird (new yard
bird!).  It seems frustrating - at Billingsley marsh I found it almost
immediately (just coincidence, I think - we looked for 40 minutes yesterday
before we found it).

It is probably best to look at the gulls from the AA Co. Wetland Sanctuary
(at overlook by Vis Ctr) if above RR, or if below RR, from the observation
blind that is half way down RR bed, out in Jug Bay marsh on South side of
RR.  The river farm is probably also good.  I suspect that as long as it is
cold enough to keep the shallows frozen, it will be good opportunity for
viewing the gull flocks here during their mid-day respite.

I saw one other bird that puzzled me, it could have been a 1st winter
iceland or thayer's.  I wish someone more experienced than me was with me,
it was very frustrating.  It was an all-white variety gull, that was
smallish (slightly, not a good field mark for me), and had a dark monocolor
bill. My field guides show the thayers to have a darker color than iceland,
but one field guide I have shows it to be very light, so I am puzzled.  It
was comparable to the glaucous in paleness.  I could not really tell much
else about the bird, I only saw it for about 20 seconds before a bunch of
birds blocked my view and I then could not relocate it!

Jeff Shenot
Croom