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4:00 - 4:50pm, Dec. 9, 2006 Black Dog Lake (west lake) Tonight Bruce Fall and I observed an adult Slaty-backed Gull roosting on the ice directly in front (about 200m) from the viewing platform on the north side of the west lake. For about 50 minutes, we observed the bird roosting, standing, preening and in flight. Drew Smith arrived about 1/2 hour later and together we clearly saw the "string of pearls" row of parallel white spots on the primaries, pink legs similar to HEGU and perhaps a bit richer in color, very broad white tertial crescent (noticeably wider than adjacent HEGUs). The bird has a very gray streaked head and breast and appears quite "shaggy". The eye is pale and surrounded by even darker feathers conveying a rather "serious" look. It is possible that this is the same dark-headed individual seen last month in Surperior, WI. I was able to get several digiscoped photos (long distance) of the bird standing and preening showing the leg color and pattern of underside of primary number 10 (P10). Some of us have been seeing (and photographing) a dark-mantled gull off and on for the past week at Black Dog and the city lakes, but never in flight or standing, always on the water. This may be the same bird. So it is likely this bird will stay around a for a while. I would suggest looking first from this same spot tomorrow afternoon and, or from the power plant toward dark. If accepted this will be only the second record for the state - both in the same year! Good luck !! Jim ------=_NextPart_84815C5ABAF209EF376268C8 Content-Type: text/html; charset=US-ASCII <HTML style="FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman"><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=windows-1251"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2995" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY> <P> <DIV>4:00 - 4:50pm, Dec. 9, 2006</DIV> <DIV>Black Dog Lake (west lake)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Tonight Bruce Fall and I observed an adult Slaty-backed Gull roosting on the ice directly in front (about 200m) from the viewing platform on the north side of the west lake. For about 50 minutes, we observed the bird roosting, standing, preening and in flight. Drew Smith arrived about 1/2 hour later and together we clearly saw the "string of pearls" row of parallel white spots on the primaries, pink legs similar to HEGU and perhaps a bit richer in color, very broad white tertial crescent (noticeably wider than adjacent HEGUs). The bird has a very gray streaked head and breast and appears quite "shaggy". The eye is pale and surrounded by even darker feathers conveying a rather "serious" look. It is possible that this is the same dark-headed individual seen last month in Surperior, WI. I was able to get several digiscoped photos (long distance) of the bird standing and preening showing the leg color and pattern of underside of primary number 10 (P10). Some of us have been seeing (and photographing) a dark-mantled gull off and on for the past week at Black Dog and the city lakes, but never in flight or standing, always on the water. This may be the same bird. So it is likely this bird will stay around a for a while. I would suggest looking first from this same spot tomorrow afternoon and, or from the power plant toward dark. If accepted this will be only the second record for the state - both in the same year! Good luck !!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Jim</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <P></P></BODY></HTML> ------=_NextPart_84815C5ABAF209EF376268C8--
