Luckily, I ran into Kyle Rambo as I had just started scoping across Beauvue Ponds for the reported White Ibis, because I was too far down the road and wouldn't have ever seen anything over the tall grasses and trees. Kyle had thought he had seen a White Ibis as he drove to me, but he wasn't able to stay.
   I went back to the area that Kyle had described, where there's a hard curve at the beginning of Abell's Wharf Road. I parked, and went up onto the berm overlooking the pond--across the pond is a very large cream-colored house with a huge powerboat on a trailer in the yard. I then looked around the yard on the pond side of that house were the Canada Geese Kyle had mentioned. Four dark ibises were on the grassy slope with the geese and I cursed, thinking I'd need to dig the White Ibis out. Wait a minute! All FOUR of these dark ibises have white bellies and orangish bills! FOUR juvenile White Ibises!
   I spent from about 6:30 until 6:45, counting and re-counting them, as they mixed and mingled on the grassy bank with the Canadas. Crazy! Thanks to all for getting the word out about this great county bird and to Jim Green for locating it in the first place!

Jane Kostenko
California, MD
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