Gull numbers were down at Schoolhouse Pond as all the ice had melted overnight.  However, there was still a nice assortment of gulls to search through.  Of the regularly occurring species, I tallied:344 Laughing Gulls, 220 Ring-billed Gulls and 266 Herring Gulls.  Also present was a 2nd winter Lesser Black-backed Gull, probably the same bird that was on the ice yesterday.  

But, the best gull was found by Jim Stasz, who picked out a 1st winter Thayer's Gull among some Herring Gulls.  I then got my scope on the bird and got fairly good looks at the structure and plumage of the gull, including the pattern on the mantle and the shade of the tertials and primaries.  The bird was extremely pale overall, with pale feather edges on the upperparts.  The primaries were a medium brown with a distinct white edge visible on the folded wing.  The Thayer's Gull was noticably smaller then the surround Herring Gulls, as well as structurally distinct.  The bird flew off before we headed inside, but we didn't get great views of it in flight as it was heading directly away from us and towards the Brown Station Road landfill.

There were several large swirling flocks of gulls over Schoolhouse Pond in the morning that included 1 adult Great Black-backed Gull.  Also of note were 3 Bald Eagles, one of which caught a sizable fish in the pond.  The Northern Pintail was also still present, at least in the morning.  

Fred Shaffer
Patuxent MOS