I took my scope down to the Inlet today for about a 30 minutes while my out
of town relatives were taking a chance to walk on the beach. There was a lot
of feeding action in the high winds, with hundreds off shore scoter flocks,
dozens of BONAPARTE'S GULLS and PURPLE SANDPIPERS on the Assateague Jetty,
about a dozen each of RED-NECKED/COMMON LOONS and COMMON EIDERS in the
water, as well as small numbers of OLDSQUAWS and RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS.
Feeding NORTHERN GANNETS were plentiful.

Sitting on the rocks of the Assateague Jetty when I left about 30 minutes
ago was what appeared to be a BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE. The bird was not very
mobile but had the black smudge behind the eye, slatey grey upperparts with
a white trailing edge, yellow bill with black legs, and all black triangular
wing tips. Although a lifebird for me (quite a Christmas Present!), I'm very
confident in this ID. When the bird did flutter over the ~20 minutes I was
able to stay and watch it, I thought I saw a red line along the left edge of
its tail that did not travel all the way to feathers' tips. I believe that
rather than be immobile by choice due to the wind, this bird was injured or
at least missing the left edge tail feathers and what I was seeing was the
bird's skin. Hopefully this guy will stick around for a while either
regrowing these feathers or recovering due to injury, letting others have a
good look. I left two birders on the bird who had just arrived as I left,
but I did not get their names unfortunately.

-- 
Alex Baish
Ocean Pines, MD (home)
Baltimore, MD (work/school)