[mou] Duluth highlights

[Peder Svingen]

Though passerine migration continues to be behind schedule in Duluth,  
clearing conditions produced a good movement of waterbirds and raptors  
today. Most of the thousands of scaup and hundreds of Horned Grebes  
seen off Park Point over the past couple of weeks either migrated out  
of the area or moved too far out on Lake Superior to be seen from shore.
Today's total of 237 Red-necked Grebes was unusually high for early  
May (peak migration normally occurs during the third week of April at  
Duluth). At the West Skyline Hawk Count site near Enger Tower, at  
least 6 Osprey and 125 Broad-winged Hawks were counted in about an hour.

Species of interest today (4 May) in Duluth:
Black Scoter -- female between Interstate Island and 27th Ave West
Red-necked Grebe -- 237 (211 of these in a loose flock off Fitger's  
parking ramp)
Piping Plover -- unbanded bird with complete breast band at 22nd  
Street, 1715 to 1735
Willet -- 3 on beach between Beach House and Sky Harbor Airport
Thayer's Gull -- first-cycle at Lafayette Square
Great Black-backed Gull -- second-cycle at Interstate Island, 0940 to  
1030
Caspian Tern -- 2 at Interstate Island
Forster's Tern -- 2 adults near the Beach House at the Recreation Area

Yesterday (3 May), I saw 2 Willets, several first-cycle Glaucous  
Gulls, and 3 Thayer's Gulls at Wisconsin Point; one of the Glaucous  
Gulls and a second-cycle Thayer's were seen on the Minnesota side of  
the Superior Entry.
--
Peder H. Svingen
Duluth, MN