MD Osprey:

Fred's news on the Franklin's Gull at Upper Marlboro also correlates to 
what is happening across the "big pond." As I reported earlier, regarding 
the Chimney Swift infux into Europe, a major influx of Franklin's and 
Laughing Gulls (and other American species) is also hitting Europe right 
now. FYI, the message below is from the Western Palearctic listserver ...

Now, if a Flamingo would just show up at Assateague ...

Phil


>Date: Thu, 3 Nov 2005 21:44:57 -0000
>From: "Dominic Mitchell" <>
>Subject: Influx of Laughing and Franklin's Gulls into the WP
>
>Following recent messages reporting an apparently unprecedented 
>simultaneous arrival in the Western Palearctic of Laughing Gulls (Larus 
>atricilla) and Franklin's Gulls (L pipixcan), with birds seen in Britain, 
>Ireland, the Azores and now Morocco, list member J P Paul emailed me to 
>report that both species have also been seen in Brittany, France, during 
>the past week.
>
>By way of possible explanation for this phenomenon, I noted the following 
>comment in an ID Frontiers message from Ian McLaren (on an unrelated 
>subject) which is self-explanatory: "Some may have read that there's a 
>huge fallout of Royal and Sandwich Terns, Bl.Skimmers, Laughing and 
>Franklin's Gulls, Chimney Swifts, and swallows out of Hurricane "Wilma," 
>despite its passage well offshore. Evidently when it weakened off SW Nova 
>Scotia, birds escaping north out of the eye were flung ashore by strong 
>easterlies early on 26 October."
>
>If this is the case, other birds tracking away from the hurricane have 
>presumably moved out into the Atlantic and got caught up in depressions 
>heading towards Europe. We've had the gulls, Chimney Swifts and 'American' 
>Barn Swallows in droves - so where are the Royal Terns and Black Skimmers? 
>Azores, anyone?



At 13:22 11/04/2005, Fred Shaffer wrote:
>I took the afternoon off with the intention of birding along the 
>Patuxent.  However, I noticed the large group of gulls at the Schoolhouse 
>Pond, and decided to get a quick look.  While scanning with my scope, I 
>came across a 2nd winter Franklin's Gull.


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Phil Davis      Davidsonville, Maryland     USA
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