[mou] Duluth RBA 10/22/03

[David R. Benson]

This is the Duluth Birding Report for Wednesday, October 22, 2003,
sponsored by the Minnesota Ornithologists' Union.

A SAGE THRASHER found by Kim Eckert on Friday the 17th was still being seen
in the Grand Marais campground as of Tuesday afternoon. The bird has been
in the area between the picnic shelter on the lake and the swimming pool
parking lot.

Other Cook County birds this week included a first-winter THAYER'S GULL in
Grand Marais, 2 LONG-TAILED DUCKS at the mouth of the Cascade River, a
FIELD SPARROW at the Lutsen Sea Villas, and a TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE and a
RED-HEADED WOODPECKER at Grand Portage National Monument. Jonas Benson and
I saw a very late PHILADELPHIA VIREO at Grand Portage on the 20th, and Mike
Hendrickson reported a BLUE-HEADED VIREO from Hovlund on the 19th.

Basic plumage RED-THROATED LOONS were reported from Flood Bay on the 18th
and Stoney Point on the 19th.

Keith Pulles reported  a BLACK SCOTER from Park Point on the 18th, and
another was at Paradise Beach on the 19th. Kim Eckert reported three SURF
SCOTERS from Good Harbor Bay on the 18th, and three were still there on the
21st. WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS were seen this week at several locations between
Duluth and the Canadian border.

In Two Harbors, a BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKER was at the lake walk on the 18th,
a VESPER SPARROW was near the tugboat, and a LECONTE'S SPARROW and two
WESTERN MEADOWLARKS were reported.

Jim Barrett reported a RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER in Morgan Park on the 16th.
Gordy Martinson had a NORTHERN CARDINAL at his feeder in Lakewood Township
this week.

The next scheduled update of this report will be on Thursday,October 30th.

The phone number for the Duluth Birding Report is (218) 728-5030, and
callers can report bird sightings if they wish after the tone at the end of
each tape.

The Duluth Birding Report is sponsored and funded by the Minnesota
Ornithologists' Union (MOU) as a service to its members.  For more
information on the MOU, either write us c/o the Bell Museum of Natural
History, 10 Church Street SE, Minneapolis MN 55455; or send an e-mail to
mou@cbs.umn.edu; or visit the MOU web site at mou.mn.org.