At approximately 3:20pm I saw seven Hooded Mergansers and some scaup above the Iowa River Power dam in Iowa City. Six of the 'hoodies' were males. There were probably 30+ Ring-billed Gulls upstream from the dam as well.
>From about 5:15pm to 7:10pm I was at Cedar Lake. I noted a couple substantial flocks of Snow Geese. There were at least four Ross's Geese in one of the flocks. The flocks each came over and thought about landing, banking right over I-380! Really cool sight. I looked in vain on both lakes for the Thayer's Gull and noticed at least 25 gulls at the north end, a few more near the middle of the north lake, and at least 100+ on the lake just to the south. At around 6:50pm I had a first year gull near the inflow at the southeast corner of "east" lake that I believe was the continuing Thayer's Gull (or at least a really good candidate). Very light gull, light primaries, and smaller bill. It was practically all by itself feeding on a large fish despite several other impressive congregations of gulls on the ice on both lakes. At 7:10pm it flew over the island and nestled in with the large congregation of gull on the other side of the "lighthouse" island. Good birding, Brandon Caswell Cedar Rapids --- This mailing list is sponsored by the Iowa Ornithologists' Union. Membership available on-line at http://www.iowabirds.org/iou/PayDues.aspx. ----- You are currently subscribed to ia-bird as: [email protected]. Unsubscribe at http://iowabirds.org/Reporting/Listserv.aspx.
