At about 2pm I stopped at Depot Pond in  Upper Marlboro to check the gulls. The only non Ring-billeds and Herrings was a 2nd cycle Lesser Black-backed Gull. I also briefly stopped at Schoolhouse Pond, but it was fairly quiet there so I headed off to Merkle Wildlife Sanctuary. Later in the afternoon, on my way back home, I thought I'd stop at Depot Pond once more just in case...

When I got there Mikey Lutmerding was there with his scope on a GLAUCOUS GULL! I was already very glad I stopped, but the show wasn't over.  Roughly ten or fifteen minutes later, we noticed an ICELAND GULL swimming in front of the Glaucous Gull (which was sitting on the ice). If that wasn't enough, a few minutes later Mikey sharply spotted another Iceland Gull dropping in, bringing the count up to two Icelands. BUT, while I was watching the newest Iceland Gull land, Jim Stasz called out ANOTHER Glaucous Gull further over to the left. It was an amazing late afternoon with four white-winged gulls. 

Lesson: If you're ever ambivalent about stopping at one more spot before calling it a day, stop.

Robert Ostrowski
Bowie, MD