Ran down to North & Chesapeake Beach today around 10:30 AM -- big mistake on a beautiful Sunday -- way too many humans everywhere, and the tide was�high at the North Beach mudflat.� To try to salvage something from the trip, I decided to sit on the rocks at the "crooked i" and count Great Black-backed Gulls on the jetties by the Rod 'n Reel.� The north jetty had 1400, the south jetty had 550.� I obviously couldn't stop at 1950, so I counted how many were in the water.� I managed to find 89 out there.� So, that adds up to 2039.� While counting the jetty birds there were about 5 pilings I couldn't see through that probably hid another 20+ birds.� Also, I could not see the entire south jetty from there, so that is certainly a�minimum count.� I wonder if it is a high count for MD?

Danny Bystrak
Bristol, AA Co.