This evening around 6:45 I viewed a Little Gull from Choptank Marina
in Caroline County.  The bird was resting on the water with Laughing
and Ring-billed Gulls just past the marina.  I did not see it sitting
in the water with the other gulls.  When I walked out the dock the
gulls flushed and I picked out the Little Gull with its dark
underwings with my bins almost immediately as the gulls flushed off
the water.  The Little Gull then flew out past the middle of the river
and began to fly south.  I watched the bird fly down river well past
the east side of the buoy that sits down river from the marina.

So here's where it gets tricky.  Choptank marina sits very near three
county lines:  Caroline, Talbot, and Dorchester.  The land viewed
directly across the marina is in Talbot.  The Talbot/Caroline line
does not follow the middle of the river.  The line is actually about a
quarter of the way across the river from the marina.  Most of the
river is in Talbot County until the river bends south.  Here Caroline
County ends and the river is split between Dorchester and Talbot.
There is a buoy in the middle of the river at the bend where the
points converge (but not quite).  The buoy is is Talbot County and the
Dorchester line is just a tad east of the buoy.  Bob R., please
correct me if I'm wrong about the county lines.

Basically, I believe I saw the Little Gull fly in all three counties,
thus giving me a new county bird in Talbot and Dorchester.  There were
also four Common Goldeneye sitting in the river across from the marina
on the Talbot side and four Bonaparte's gulls flying down river
(Talbot/Caroline).

Earlier at the Denton WWTP there were 11 Bufflehead a single
Ring-necked Duck and 4 Rough-winged Swallows.  At Smithville Lake
there was a single Rough-winged Swallow feeding with Tree Swallows.

Jim Brighton
Easton, MD


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