Jim,
   Looking at the county topo maps your description of the county lines is
correct. It becomes a judgment call on the part of the observer to decide
where the bird is in relation to the invisible county lines.

On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 8:03 PM, Jim Brighton <>wrote:

> 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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-- 
Bob Ringler
Eldersburg MD

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