[mou] Duluth Minn Birding Weekend

[Kim R Eckert]

A few species of note were seen in Duluth during the Jan 6-7 Minn=20
Birding Weekend (MBW) trip:

- Harlequin Duck: the pair which has been present intermittently since=20=

early November was seen in the ship canal at Canal Park about 4 pm=20
Saturday.

- Gyrfalcon: a gray-morph adult male was discovered by Dave Evans on=20
the afternoon of Jan 4, and he saw it again about 4 pm Saturday; on=20
both days it was in the vicinity of the I-535 Blatnik Bridge. The MBW=20
group had a brief and distant sighting today of what probably was this=20=

Gyr at 4 pm at the Peavy grain elevator in Superior along U S Hwy 53,=20
SE of the Blatnik Bridge.

- Great Black-backed Gull - a first-winter imm among ~200 gulls on the=20=

Canal Park breakwalls about 2 pm Saturday.

- Thayer's Gull: an adult at the same location and time.

- Snowy Owl: discovered by Dave Evans on Jan 5 along Garfield Ave in=20
the harbor area, just E of the Goodwill store. The MBW group relocated=20=

this individual (probably an imm male) both Saturday and today hunting=20=

at dusk from utility poles along the RR tracks E of Garfield, again=20
near the Goodwill.

On Saturday, we checked the Sax-Zim Bog, but turned up relatively=20
little of note, except for Rough-legged Hawk, Black-b Magpie, Boreal=20
Chickadees (Owl Ave, ~1/2 mi S of Co Rd 52/Arkola Ave; and on Arkola,=20
1/2 mi E of Owl Ave), Snow Buntings (Co Rd 29, ~1.5 mi N of Co Rd 133),=20=

and both Pine & Evening grosbeaks (Nichols Lake Rd, just W of U S Hwy=20
53).

Today, we did the Hedbom Forest Rd and, like others previously, saw=20
Great Gray Owls and both Am Three-toed & Black-backed woodpeckers =96

- 2 Great Grays: one was 6.6 mi W of the east yellow gate/state forest=20=

sign; the other hunted along the road between 2.1 and 2.4 mi W of the=20
same gate/sign;

- 1 Am Three-toed: male 2.7 mi W of the gate (S side, with a=20
Black-backed and 2 Hairys; it took a long time to find one).

- 3 Black-backeds: male 2.5 mi W of the gate (N side); female also at=20
2.5 mi W (S side); female 2.7 mi W of the gate (S side).

Kim Eckert