Today, 12 July, at about 2:45 PM, Bob Russell and I saw a Little Gull at the Paynesville sewage ponds in Stearns Co. The gull was in second- or adult-summer plumage.
Regrettably, we didn't see the Little Gull until it, and about 12 accompanying Franklin's Gulls, flew across one of the sewage-pond dikes in front of us; more regrettably, that group of gulls turned to the NNW and gradually drifted out of sight. They didn't return, at least not in the next hour or so while we were still at the ponds. Whether that group of gulls, or a subset of that group, will return to the ponds in the evening is anyone's guess. Phil Chu Department of Biology St. John's University Collegeville, MN 56321
