Hey everyone-

After not being able to get out all day yesterday ( I had to read around 200 pages of East of Eden for an English paper), my Dad and I headed out to North East this morning for the Iceland Gulls.  I had emailed Jane and Dennis Coskren last night about how far out the gulls were, and they said it would pretty much be luck of the draw.  Unfortunately, when we arrived at around 8:30, most of the gulls were far out on the ice, too far for my binos.  However, I quickly spotted a birder with a scope trained on the flock, and hurried in his direction. The birder was Kye Jenkins,  and he was nice enough to let me see the Gull through his scope.  It was curled up pretty tight, but all the field marks were there, and a quick stretch of its head sealed it.  After Kye left, I looked around for some of the Lesser-Black Backed Gulls reported by Sean, but found none (I had one candidate, but he, along with the rest of the gulls, was flushed by a fisherman out on the ice).

We then headed back home to Baltimore, and made a quick run through Druid Ridge Cemetery around 10:30.  We asked some of the birders that were already present about the Crossbills, but they had not been seen all morning.

Other notes from the day:

-An extremely pale Red-Tailed Hawk on Old Court Rd. near Druid Ridge.  I actually had my dad turn the car around so I could get another look at it, but careful inspection proved it to be nothing more than a Red-Tailed.

-A group of around 8 Black Vultures feasting on a deer carcass in one of the farm fields along Old Court road.

A couple photos of a Mockingbird and the Vultures are up at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicobirdphotos/

Good birding!

Nico Sarbanes
Baltimore