[mou] Duluth update

[Peder Svingen]

The dark-mantled gull was seen again today on the ice near the WLSSD  
treatment plant in the Duluth harbor. I have now watched this gull for  
total of 3 hours and 15 minutes on four dates in January under the  
following conditions: Overcast, looking SE from 350 yards for 30  
minutes on 10 January between 4:00 and 4:30 P.M. Clear skies, looking  
SW from 440 yards for one hour on 12 January between 9:45 and 10:45  
A.M. Broken cirrus overcast with intermittent sun, looking WNW from  
525 yards and looking SW from 350 yards for 45 minutes on 13 January  
between 10:25 and 11:10 A.M. Clear skies, looking W from 880 yards for  
one hour on 27 January between 10:50 and 11:50 A.M. This is most  
likely the adult Slaty-backed Gull first found and photographed by  
Karl Bardon at the Superior Landfill 21 December 2007 and is  
presumably the same individual photographed at the landfill yesterday  
by Joshua Christian (see his posting for links to photos).  
Unfortunately, the distances have been too far for me to detect the  
diagnostic "string of pearls" formed by white tongue tips on p5 - p8,  
and this bird has not established a predictable visitation pattern of  
time and location in the Duluth Harbor.

Also seen among the flock of nearly 600 gulls near the WLSSD treatment  
plant today were 11 Glaucous Gulls, a second-cycle Great Black-backed  
Gull, and a first-cycle Thayer's Gull. Kim Eckert spotted a third- 
cycle Iceland Gull and another Thayer's Gull near WLSSD shortly after  
noon, and the Great Black-backed was refound at Canal Park between  
2:45 and 3:00 PM. From the road outside of the fence at the Superior  
Landfill between 1:00 and 2:00 PM today, I counted 620 Herring Gulls,  
7 Glaucous Gulls, and an adult Thayer's Gull. At 4:30 PM today, I  
found two Snowy Owls along Airport Road -- one perched on top of a  
tall chimney near the federal prison and one perched on top of a  
telephone pole near the NRRI building -- which might explain why  
various groups of birders have reported this species at different  
locations near the Duluth Airport. As mentioned previously, use  
extreme caution in this highly sensitive / high security area and obey  
all No Parking / No Standing signs.
--
Peder H. Svingen
Duluth, MN
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://moumn.org/pipermail/mou-net_moumn.org/attachments/20080127/98a57409/attachment-0001.html