Those of us down river may want to check the open water below the dams. Chris ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dennis/Barbara Martin" <[email protected]> To: "MOU" <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 7:29 PM Subject: Re: [mou] Slaty-backed Gull Departure from Pt. Douglas, Washington County?
> 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] > > > _______________________________________________ > mou-net mailing list > [email protected] > http://cbs.umn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mou-net >
