I try to note the gulls flying over Schoolhouse Pond each morning as they 
make their morning flight towards the Brown Station Road landfill.  Most 
mornings have mostly Ring-billed and Herring Gulls (or Laughing Gulls 
later in the spring), but today was especially rewarding with six species 
of gulls flying over.  In addition to the usual Herring and Ring-billed 
Gulls, eight Laughing Gulls flew over, individual gulls flying over 
periodically calling as they passed.  Also flying over was an adult Great 
Black-backed Gull and an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull.  The LBBG was 
with a small group of Herring Gulls, and the differences in shape and 
proportions (wings and body) and pattern of the upper and lower side of 
the wing was pretty distinctive. 

But, the highlight was when an adult Bonaparte's Gull soared over.  Most 
gulls are pretty direct in their morning "commute" to the landfill, but 
this gull soared lazily over the pond as much larger Herring Gulls passed, 
it circled several times, and I got good views at both the lower and upper 
surfaces of the wings when it got lower to the pond.  After flying around 
briefly, it drifted off behind the trees in the general direction of the 
Patuxent.

Fred Shaffer
Patuxent MOS