Spent the last two mornings at the Morgan Park mudflats in West Duluth. Yesterday, saw my first white rumped sandpiper of the year. Today, there were 5 ruddy turnstones, 2 semipalmated plovers, some least sandpipers, a spotted sandpiper, 2 killdeer, and most impressive were 200+ bonapartes gulls, (nearly all of them without breeding plumage yet, immatures?). What was impressive with these gulls is that they would flush in unison every so often, responding to the shorebirds flushing or in response to a blue winged teal that came in low, etc. Well, the bonapartes would go up several hundred feet in the air, as a flock, kettle around for a few minutes, then begin dropping back down to the mudflats one after the other. And I mean dropping! The bonapartes would make a quick bank then drop at least 100 to 200 feet in like three seconds, then bank again and drop right down to the water. They would drop in so fast and hard that they made tremendous wooshing sounds all around me as they came in. Really cool, and might make a gull fan out of anyone. Of note, the shorebirds encountered over the last two days appeared quite restless, none stayed very long to feed, like they know they are a little behind schedule I suppose. Happy Birding, Shawn Zierman.
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