On the way home from bird banding at Eden Mill, I stopped at Conowingo 
Dam. As soon as I parked at the observation platform near the dam, I got 
a brief sighting of a a small gull that flew by about half way between 
the shore and Rowland Island. I noticed that it had dark wings and a 
large white area on the trailing edge of the wings. Although I have 
never seen one, the first thing that went through my mind was "Sabine's 
Gull!" I had not had time to get my binoculars out, so this was a naked 
eye sighting. I looked in Peterson's and National Geographic field 
guides and the Sabine's Gull most closely matches what I saw. The time 
was about 1:35. I waited around about 10 minutes hoping it would circle 
around but I never saw it again. As I was leaving, I talked to the eagle 
watchers at the other end of the parking lot. They had seen it also but 
didn't know what it was. Greg Futral got a distant picture of it. He is 
going to send me the pictures and hopefully that will confirm the ID.

Since the gull seemed to be heading downstream, I went to Lapidum in 
hopes of seeing it again. I observed there from 2:00 - 2:30, but did not 
see anything unusual.

Les

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Les Eastman
mailto:[log in to unmask]
Havre de Grace, MD

The eagle looked down on the river below
And he wrapped his wings round him and he fell like a stone
And the big salmon fought but the talons held true
And he shuddered as the world turned from silver to blue
                               Steve Earle