[mou] 20 Red-throated Loons, Little Gull, Piping Plover at Duluth

[Peder Svingen]

For most of the afternoon today (6 May), light winds and good lighting  
produced excellent viewing of birds on Lake Superior from the public  
access sites on Park Point. Between 5:20 and 6:10 PM, I watched 19 Red- 
throated Loons from the Beach House at the Park Point Recreation Area.  
The birds were far enough off shore to require a spotting scope, but  
the excellent viewing conditions left no doubt as to their identity.  
At almost the same time, Kim Eckert found a Red-throated Loon off 31st  
Street (Lafayette Square), making a total of 20 Red-throateds off Park  
Point this evening.

I found an adult Little Gull among a large gathering of Bonaparte's  
Gulls on Lake Superior off 22nd Street in the late afternoon; it was  
refound by Kim Eckert off Canal Park at about 7:00 PM, where most of  
the gulls seen earlier between 12th Street and the Recreation Area had  
assembled into a noisy congregation.

A record high spring migration total of 4,153 Bonaparte's Gulls was  
carefully counted by groups of 10 at Park Point between 3:15 and 6:15  
PM today (6 May). Not included in this total were flocks of 775  
Bonaparte's seen earlier in the day near the mouth of Miller Creek off  
27th Ave West and 943 Bonaparte's on the back side of Hearding Island,  
since they were assumed to be part of the evening congregation at  
Canal Park. Kim and I estimated that more than 3,000 Bonaparte's Gulls  
gathered at Canal Park in the early evening -- not including a large  
flock that passed overhead.

Other highlights at Park Point:
Horned Grebe -- total of 902, relatively late peak count
Piping Plover -- unbanded bird still present at 22nd Street access
Willet -- three between 12th Street and 22nd Street
Ruddy Turnstone -- one at 22nd Street access
Sanderling -- three at 22nd Street access
Forster's Tern -- two at Recreation Area (Common Tern, which has a  
median arrival date of 1 May in northern Minnesota, has yet to be  
found at Duluth this spring).

--
Peder H. Svingen
Duluth, MN