A few species of note were seen in Duluth during the Jan 6-7 Minn=20 Birding Weekend (MBW) trip:
- Harlequin Duck: the pair which has been present intermittently since=20= early November was seen in the ship canal at Canal Park about 4 pm=20 Saturday. - Gyrfalcon: a gray-morph adult male was discovered by Dave Evans on=20 the afternoon of Jan 4, and he saw it again about 4 pm Saturday; on=20 both days it was in the vicinity of the I-535 Blatnik Bridge. The MBW=20 group had a brief and distant sighting today of what probably was this=20= Gyr at 4 pm at the Peavy grain elevator in Superior along U S Hwy 53,=20 SE of the Blatnik Bridge. - Great Black-backed Gull - a first-winter imm among ~200 gulls on the=20= Canal Park breakwalls about 2 pm Saturday. - Thayer's Gull: an adult at the same location and time. - Snowy Owl: discovered by Dave Evans on Jan 5 along Garfield Ave in=20 the harbor area, just E of the Goodwill store. The MBW group relocated=20= this individual (probably an imm male) both Saturday and today hunting=20= at dusk from utility poles along the RR tracks E of Garfield, again=20 near the Goodwill. On Saturday, we checked the Sax-Zim Bog, but turned up relatively=20 little of note, except for Rough-legged Hawk, Black-b Magpie, Boreal=20 Chickadees (Owl Ave, ~1/2 mi S of Co Rd 52/Arkola Ave; and on Arkola,=20 1/2 mi E of Owl Ave), Snow Buntings (Co Rd 29, ~1.5 mi N of Co Rd 133),=20= and both Pine & Evening grosbeaks (Nichols Lake Rd, just W of U S Hwy=20 53). Today, we did the Hedbom Forest Rd and, like others previously, saw=20 Great Gray Owls and both Am Three-toed & Black-backed woodpeckers =96 - 2 Great Grays: one was 6.6 mi W of the east yellow gate/state forest=20= sign; the other hunted along the road between 2.1 and 2.4 mi W of the=20 same gate/sign; - 1 Am Three-toed: male 2.7 mi W of the gate (S side, with a=20 Black-backed and 2 Hairys; it took a long time to find one). - 3 Black-backeds: male 2.5 mi W of the gate (N side); female also at=20 2.5 mi W (S side); female 2.7 mi W of the gate (S side). Kim Eckert
