Albatross?

This item was in today's Post.

ALEXANDRIA, Union Street South, 700 block, March 1. Animal control was asked to pick up an albatross that had a leg stuck in a piling near a dock on the Potomac River. With the help of the Alexandria Fire Department, animal control took a boat to the piling and caught the bird, which had a fishhook stuck in its leg. The albatross was taken to an animal hospital for treatment, then transferred to a wildlife rehabilitator.

I am guessing that this was one of the common gulls and not an albatross, which would be an extreme rarity here. Usually albatrosses and other seabirds only make an appearance here in the wake of hurricanes or other significant storms. I hope it recovers.

Update: A post on MDOsprey confirms that it was a great black-backed gull, not an albatross.

Flowers

New Bird Blog List

I was reading some entries over at Charlie's Bird Blog and came across a link to a new list of birding blogs. There are quite a few that I had not heard of before, mostly UK blogs on Surfbirds. If you want your blog on the list, you could probably get in contact with the site manager and get it added. It is great to have blogrolls like this and the list at I and the Bird available since it can sometimes be hard to find good blogs on the same subject.

Saturday's Birds

Having gotten a late start this morning, I headed over to Anacostia River Park for a little waterbirding. Unfortunately the waterbirds were trying not to be seen, at least by me, and so I mostly saw just a few of the common species. There was at least one lesser black-backed gull among the myriad of common gulls, and one killdeer preening itself on a mudflat. A juvenile bald eagle did a few turns high overhead. I searched through a small flock of song sparrows for anything different, and I may have had a savannah, but I cannot be sure of that.

This swarm of insects was on a signboard near the AREC. Does anyone know what these are?

The red eyes make them look a bit demonic.

Since I finished up pretty quickly at Anacostia Park, I made a second stop to walk around the Tidal Basin. With today's warm temperatures, plenty of people came out and were walking and sunbathing all around the inlet. The flock of lesser scaup that was there last week has largely been replaced by a flock of paddle boats. There was a lone pied-billed grebe on the Washington Channel, and two male red-breasted mergansers on the Potomac. Double-crested cormorants are back in force.

The cherry trees are getting ready to bloom.


SPECIES SEEN: 26

Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Canada Goose
Mallard
Lesser Scaup
Red-breasted Merganser
Turkey Vulture
Bald Eagle
Killdeer
Ring-billed Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
American Herring Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Carolina Wren
Northern Mockingbird
American Robin
Fish Crow
European Starling
House Sparrow
American Goldfinch
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle

Tags:

• Birding

What Color Green Are You?

Since a previous quiz decided that my blog should be green, I decided I better take this quiz (linked from Tortoise Trail) to make the answer more specific.

You Are Grass Green

Down to earth and a bit of a hippie, you are very into nature and the outdoors. You accept the world and people as they are. You don't try to change things. You are also very comfortable with yourself, flaws and all. Optimistic about the future, you feel like life is always getting better.

What Color Green Are You?

Green like this?

Tags:

• Silly stuff