VA BIRDers,
We last saw the Black-headed Gull as it flew away over the dirt wall to the
north of the active portion of the landfill and out of sight at about 1225.
It was readily identifiable in flight by the wing pattern. When first
spotted, about 25 yards from us, we all saw all the key features - size,
bill color, leg color, crown color, nape color, mantle color, tail color,
and black smudge behind and slightly below the eye. It briefly flew at one
point and the top side and bottom side patterns of the wings were observed.
All features were consistent with adult winter Black-headed Gull and not
consistent with any other gulls. The bird was mixed in with Ring-billed,
Laughing and Herring Gulls - we were at the landfill for about an hour
before finding it - this was likely because of the continual turnover of
gulls due to eagles, new garbage, etc. I believe I heard Mike said it
brought his year list to 305 or so.
I checked the small database on unusual bird sightings for Northern Virginia
that I have and can find no other report of Black-headed Gull in recent
times (ca. 25 yrs). If you know of others, please send them to the list or
to me - thank you.
Also at the Prince William County Sanitary Landfill today were:
Bald Eagle 8
Golden Eagle 1
Laughing Gull ca 500
Ring-billed Gull ca 1200
Herring Gull ca 850, a large increase over last week
Iceland Gull 1, first winter
Lesser Black-backed Gull 1, adult or 4th
Great Black-backed Gull ca 40
Common Raven 1
Elsewhere, Common Mergansers were observed from several Potomac River
locations in Prince William and Fairfax Cos. and so it appears the recent
cold front has finally pushed them down to us. Also of interest today were
two Common Goldeneyes observed from the Belmont Marina in Woodbridge
overlooking the mouth of the Belmont River/Belmont Bay. As you can probably
imagine, there was a large number of waterfowl on the bay - I think Jodi
Bucknam's earlier post noted many of them.
Kurt Gaskill
PS Jodi is recruiting for the Mason Neck Sector of the Fort Belvoir CBC - if
you like eagles, waterfowl and large acreages of woodland and marsh that is
not generally open to the public, then drop her a line at jodibucknam at
hotmail.com or call 703-329-0235 !
-----Original Message-----
From: va-bird-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:va-bird-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Jay Keller
Sent: Saturday, December 09, 2006 11:40 AM
To: va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [va-bird] Black-headed Gull, Prince Wm Landfill
adult here NOW
Observers: Kurt Gaskill, Mike Iwanik, Vickie Gullet,
Jay Keller
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