Late this afternoon there were a Piping Plover and 13 Whimbrels on the Hearding Island sandbars at Park Point in Duluth. The plover was on a sandbar on the S side of the island, which is visible from 24th St, and the Whimbrels (along with 2 Marbled Godwits) were on the flats on the W side of the island, visible from the usual site behind the Bayside Market at 19th St.
There were also several hundred terns flying out over L Superior along the entire length of Park Point between Canal Park and the Recreation Area, although they were mostly too far out to ID and the off-lake winds made them difficult to scope. Most, if not all, appeared to be Common Terns, although I did have a possible adult Arctic Tern perched next to a Common Tern on a buoy by the boat ramp at the Recreation Area. With direct comparison as viewed through binoculars, its legs were shorter, the underparts grayer, and the lower edge of its black cap had a different appearance (as shown in Sibley). However, I never had an unambiguous view of its bill, and I never saw its wing pattern or flight profile, since the terns flew off as I was setting up my scope. - Kim Eckert (Please note new e-mail address <eckertkr at gmail.com>) -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 1261 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://moumn.org/pipermail/mou-net_moumn.org/attachments/20070521/2a1b74da/attachment.bin
