forward by Jim Williams Wayzata, Minnesota Begin forwarded message:
From: douglas chapman <[email protected]> Date: September 19, 2006 10:11:23 PM CDT To: [email protected] Subject: [sd-birds] Update on the yearly Black-headed Gull and the Green Violet-ear in Sioux City Thought some would be interested. Doug Chapman Sioux Falls, This morning the Green Violet-Ear was still coming to the Sioux City feeder until at least 9:30 AM when I left. It was quite cold (low 40s), but the Violet-Ear remained faithful to his schedule (as I'm told) by showing up every 20 minutes or so and then leaving after a couple sips at the feeder. I saw it very well while it perched in the backyard tree in between a couple of feedings, it also chased away one of the two RT Hummingbirds at one point. From here I decided to make a day of it and try for the Black-headed Gull at Spirit Lake. Just north of Sioux City on my way to HWY 60 I saw a Eurasian Collared Dove fly across the highway. Lots of Tree and Barn Swallows working the road along Spirit Lake. Also hundreds of Gulls following tractors around off of HWY 9 as you come into Spirit Lake, I assumed they were RBilleds so I didn't stop...but I just re-read Jay Gilliam's post and saw that many of them may have been Franklin's, guess I was in too much of hurry to see the BHeaded. At "The Grade" the Black-headed Gull was nicely perched on the jetty rocks, along with a Herring Gull. Three Forster's Terns were working this area. The BH Gull seemed to make a few half-hearted attempts at plucking the swallows from the air (the wind was quite fierce) and at one point jumped on a plunge-diving Forster's Tern's back (either going for the Tern or the Tern's meal I guess). A Merlin made a sweep past the dock at water level which was quite cool. A Sora called from the MN side. -- Jason Paulios Iowa City, IA [email protected]
