The dark-mantled gull was seen again today on the ice near the WLSSD treatment plant in the Duluth harbor. I have now watched this gull for total of 3 hours and 15 minutes on four dates in January under the following conditions: Overcast, looking SE from 350 yards for 30 minutes on 10 January between 4:00 and 4:30 P.M. Clear skies, looking SW from 440 yards for one hour on 12 January between 9:45 and 10:45 A.M. Broken cirrus overcast with intermittent sun, looking WNW from 525 yards and looking SW from 350 yards for 45 minutes on 13 January between 10:25 and 11:10 A.M. Clear skies, looking W from 880 yards for one hour on 27 January between 10:50 and 11:50 A.M. This is most likely the adult Slaty-backed Gull first found and photographed by Karl Bardon at the Superior Landfill 21 December 2007 and is presumably the same individual photographed at the landfill yesterday by Joshua Christian (see his posting for links to photos). Unfortunately, the distances have been too far for me to detect the diagnostic "string of pearls" formed by white tongue tips on p5 - p8, and this bird has not established a predictable visitation pattern of time and location in the Duluth Harbor.
Also seen among the flock of nearly 600 gulls near the WLSSD treatment plant today were 11 Glaucous Gulls, a second-cycle Great Black-backed Gull, and a first-cycle Thayer's Gull. Kim Eckert spotted a third- cycle Iceland Gull and another Thayer's Gull near WLSSD shortly after noon, and the Great Black-backed was refound at Canal Park between 2:45 and 3:00 PM. From the road outside of the fence at the Superior Landfill between 1:00 and 2:00 PM today, I counted 620 Herring Gulls, 7 Glaucous Gulls, and an adult Thayer's Gull. At 4:30 PM today, I found two Snowy Owls along Airport Road -- one perched on top of a tall chimney near the federal prison and one perched on top of a telephone pole near the NRRI building -- which might explain why various groups of birders have reported this species at different locations near the Duluth Airport. As mentioned previously, use extreme caution in this highly sensitive / high security area and obey all No Parking / No Standing signs. -- Peder H. Svingen Duluth, MN -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://moumn.org/pipermail/mou-net_moumn.org/attachments/20080127/98a57409/attachment-0001.html
