Yesterday and Friday were a bit slow at our feeders due to the fair weather (birds don't seem to eat as much).  The Oriole, and Fox and Tree sparrows all continued feeding here though!

On the river, the gulls and waterfowl were very quiet.  I looked for a Thayer's Gull (boistered by Fred's Post), as this would be new for my Yard list, but had no luck.  I did see what may have been the same Iceland Gull that was frequenting Schoolhouse Pond, twice this week.  But in general it was slow, with fewer gulls here than when it was colder.  Stan mentioned the flock down between Jackson and Selby's - it was the biggest aggregation seen here the last two days, probably about 1,000 gulls.  Of interest was the composition - it changed from mostly adults (when the gulls were more numerous here last week in the very cold weather) to a mixed-age flock.  As a result, it was much harder to scope for white-winged gulls in the mixed-age flock.

The best bird seen here was a Common Goldeneye, which are seen annually but generally are very uncommon at Jug Bay.

The Rusty's that Stan and Joanne posted about (off Wrighton Rd) are oftern here (Jug Bay) in winter and early Spring, although 80 is a very good number.  They move around a lot, and spend a lot of time feeding on the ground in the scrub-shrub wetland habitats along the river or nearby (as seen by Stan etc.).  At our house in the wetland out back, I normally only see from a few to as many as 20 at a time.   They feed here almost daily.  A few years ago we had a large flock here for a couple weeks (~150).   So far this season the most I have seen is only about 25.

I'm going to check the Potomac (Piscataway) this morning, and then come back to Upper Marlboro and Jug Bay to look for gulls at afternoon loafing period.

Cheers-
Jeff Shenot
Croom Md