I spent part of the day today seeing what I could find in the Hains  
Point area today, along with a stop at the Tidal Basin on the way out.  
Highlights were a first cycle Thayer's Gull, and an adult White-winged  
Scoter.
The Thayer's Gull was seen roosting on a floating dock in the Tidal  
Basin from about 1-1:15pm, along with perhaps 80 other gulls. It was a  
in between bird as far as overall darkness goes, being much paler then  
the surrounding juvenile Herring Gulls, but still having nice dark  
contrasting primaries, eliminating a dark Iceland Gull. Other  
distinctive marks seen included the small dark bill, the dusky  
"eyepatch", rounded head, and the dark centered tertials with very  
pale edging. Sadly I was unable to get a picture, even of the crudest  
sort.
However, I did get some pictures of the White-winged Scoter, which  
apparently is quite uncommon for DC! Such a strange idea for a guy  
from MA haha. It was hanging out with a female Greater Scaup off the  
tip of Hains, towards the mouth of the Anacostia.
  A picture can be seen at: http://picasaweb.google.com/goshawk227/DCAreaBirding#5302381322322699554 
.
There were tons of geese around as well, but the 1000+ that were close  
enough to scrutinize were all Canada, sadly. There were a few hundred  
more across the Potomac at LBJ park that were too far to be able to  
tell if there were any Cackling mixed in.
Unfortunately, with all the ice being melted there weren't good  
concentrations of gulls as there were a week ago, so instead of over  
3500 gulls, I had less then 300..
Full lists from today are below.




E. Potomac Park - Hains Point (1150-1250):


Canada Goose     690
Mallard     25
Greater Scaup     1f
Lesser Scaup     3m
White-winged Scoter     1 ad m
Double-crested Cormorant     2
Ring-billed Gull     125
Herring Gull (American)     30
Great Black-backed Gull     25
Rock Pigeon     20
Downy Woodpecker     1
Fish Crow     2
European Starling     12


13 species




Tidal Basin - West Potomac Park (1250-1315):


Canada Goose     820
Double-crested Cormorant     2
Ring-billed Gull     40
Herring Gull (American)     40
Thayer's Gull     1 first-cycle
Great Black-backed Gull     10


6 species


This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)


Good birding,
Ian Davies
Manomet, MA (Temporarily living in Arlington, VA)

www.pbase.com/daviesphoto
http://picasaweb.google.com/goshawk227