Happened to stop by Point Douglas after 3:00 today and watched the rest of the gulls leave the two open water spots in the lake. At 3:30 about 20 of the gulls with the Slaty-backed Gull headed south on the St Croix past the bridge and out of sight but with a few seconds the Slaty-backed Gull doubled back and rejoined the few gulls left on the open water holes. At 3:59 the last 11 gulls with the Slaty-backed Gull following took flight heading to the west and Spring Lake and I hoped Black Dog. The went far enough south to cross into Dakota County (a county now with two different slaty-backed records in the same year) but generally continued flying west until they went out of sight.
I went to Black Dog and joined Jim Mattson watching to see which gulls came down behind the plant at dusk. But as generally happens with me the gulls all landed on the ice edge on West Black Dog Lake and were far enough away that none were identifiable. There were not that many gulls, probably less than 100. In past years in late December and early January gulls would feed south of the bridge at Point Douglas and were thought to go back to Black Dog at night. It will be interesting to see if that pattern holds this late in January. At 3:00 today there were no gulls south of the bridge chasing the goldeneyes, etc., although I didn't check Veterans Park. And where did the Slaty-backed Gull go? Was it at Black Dog and we were unable to see it? Did it land at Spring Lake? I know that some waterfowl spends the night at Spring Lake and feeds further south in Dakota County around Vermillion during the day. Remember the gyr hunting that waterfowl. But you rarely see gulls south of Spring Lake. A couple of days ago there were 250 gulls at Pt Douglas, including the Slaty-backed, two different Glaucous. an adult Thayers, and a variety of misc waterfowl. Wonder where they went? Keep your eyes open. Denny Dennis and Barbara Martin [email protected]
