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Subject:

PG Landfill birds

From:

Jeff Shenot

Reply-To:

Jeff Shenot

Date:

Thu, 29 Dec 2005 12:45:54 -0500

I went to the landfill with a load of trash yesterday, and wished I had 
more time to view the birds there.  I had bins and a scope, and about 20-
25 minutes to look.  I looked at about 650-700 geese but all were Canadas; 
I looked for a Cackler but not very hard because I wanted to see the gulls.

There was a spectacular number; I estimated very roughly a total of about 
7,500.  Most were Ringers and Herrings, and I did not attempt counting 
them; it seemed they were fairly even in number, but it could easily have 
been a 40/60 ratio with either species.

There were about 1,900-2,000 in one group on the ground below the active 
dump (on top of mound), to the NE of it.  The landfill is doing some 
groundwork here with heavy equipment and the gulls there were all resting. 
They were easy to view except in two places; they were spread out nicely.  
I carefully went through them looking for a white gull, but found none.  
These birds were easy to count but there is a possibility if a winter 
migrant was in with them I missed it; I estimate 15-20% of the individual 
birds were unviewable due to crowding.  I went through them twice; I found 
no laughers; 49 adult and 2 juv. great-black backs (there could easily 
have been more juveniles but I am not good at id.'ing them and did not 
have a lot of time to try counting more accurately); and one adult and one 
juvenile lesser black backs.  The rest appeared to be all Ringers and 
Herrings.

Then I went to dump at the trash mound.  Wow.  It was impossible to count 
birds since many if not most moved frequently from perching on the ground 
to circling and swarming on the trash.  Twice they all got up in the air 
at once; it was a spectacular menagerie.  This was the best chance to 
estimate #s, so I tried.  Attempting to count by 100s, I got 5,000 one 
time and then 6,100 a second time.  There was also many starlings, which 
were easier to count since they stayed in a tight ball wehen they all got 
up (both times when the gulls all got up).  I estimated there were 1,400 
starlings.  I used an average for the gulls, and added it to the birds 
below the mound for a total of about 7,500 gulls.  I know this is not 
accurate but it may be useful information to someone anyway.

There were so many birds and they moved so much it was very difficult to 
look for an all-white one.  I found none, but there could easily have been 
one in there that was unseen.  I saw no laughers.  There were also many 
great black backs (I counted to 40 adults once and got about half way 
through the the bunch that was resting on the ground, but lost count when 
they all got up).  I saw 5 adult lesser black backs on the ground at one 
location, they were very close and I got some nice video of them.

I think it would be fun to ask the county if they would let me (preferably 
with another birder or two!) try to have a more carefull look and do a 
better job counting and looking for migrants.  Any one interested?  If so, 
email me and let me know.  It would have to be done without interfering 
with operations but I think I could get permission.  I have permission to 
Atlas survey there, it is one of my assigned blcoks and the managers know 
me.

Jeff Shenot
Croom MD