[mou] Slaty-backed Gull Departure from Pt. Douglas, Washington County?

[Chris Benson]

Those of us down river may want to check the
open water below the dams.

Chris
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dennis/Barbara Martin" <dbmartin@skypoint.com>
To: "MOU" <mou-net@cbs.umn.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 7:29 PM
Subject: Re: [mou] Slaty-backed Gull Departure from Pt. Douglas, Washington
County?


> Happened to stop by Point Douglas after 3:00 today and watched the rest of
> the gulls leave the two open water spots in the lake.  At 3:30 about 20 of
> the gulls with the Slaty-backed Gull headed south on the St Croix past the
> bridge and out of sight but with a few seconds the Slaty-backed Gull
doubled
> back and rejoined the few gulls left on the open water holes.  At 3:59 the
> last 11 gulls with the Slaty-backed Gull following took flight heading to
> the west and Spring Lake and I hoped Black Dog.  The went far enough south
> to cross into Dakota County (a county now with two different slaty-backed
> records in the same year) but generally continued flying west until they
> went out of sight.
>
> I went to Black Dog and joined Jim Mattson watching to see which gulls
came
> down behind the plant at dusk.  But as generally happens with me the gulls
> all landed on the ice edge on West Black Dog Lake and were far enough away
> that none were identifiable.  There were not that many gulls, probably
less
> than 100.
>
> In past years in late December and early January gulls would feed south of
> the bridge at Point Douglas and were thought to go back to Black Dog at
> night.  It will be interesting to see if that pattern holds this late in
> January.  At 3:00 today there were no gulls south of the bridge chasing
the
> goldeneyes, etc., although I didn't check Veterans Park.  And where did
the
> Slaty-backed Gull go?  Was it at Black Dog and we were unable to see it?
> Did it land at Spring Lake?  I know that some waterfowl spends the night
at
> Spring Lake and feeds further south in Dakota County around Vermillion
> during the day.  Remember the gyr hunting that waterfowl.  But you rarely
> see gulls south of Spring Lake.
>
> A couple of days ago there were 250 gulls at Pt Douglas, including the
> Slaty-backed, two different Glaucous. an adult Thayers, and a variety of
> misc waterfowl.  Wonder where they went?  Keep your eyes open.
>
> Denny
>
> Dennis and Barbara Martin
> dbmartin@skypoint.com
>
>
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