This afternoon, Sunday, September 14, 2008, I relocated the Sabine's Gull out over the central part of Lake Bemidji from the Cameron Park boat landing north of the Bemidji State campus. I was able to get better looks than yesterday and another birder, Mary Lou Marchand, was also able to see the bird. She thought the gray on the back was somewhat brownish as was the inner wing and that she observed a bit of black on the tail tip, suggesting this was an immature bird. We also located a Little Gull visible from the same landing in with a flock of a dozen or so Bonaparte's Gulls. This appeared to be a full adult with very blackish underwings except for a narrow band of white on the underwing trailing edge. There was no black visible on the upperwing and the bird was as small or slightly smaller than the Bonaparte's Gulls with it. Also, there was still a partial hood of black on the Little Gull. The Little Gull was probably present yesterday but I was hesitant to identify it then with all my focus on the Sabine's Gull. The Little Gull gets up and circles with the flock of Bonaparte's Gulls about every 15 minutes or so and the contrast between the birds is dramatic while in flight. The Little Gull was only a few hundred meters out from the landing, unlike the Sabine's Gull which was far out over the middle of the lake. He Sabine's Gull also seems to fly periodically, less often but for longer periods than the Bonaparte's Gulls, and is much more active in picking insects or food off the surface of the water. With all the waves this afternoon, none of these birds are particularly visible when resting on the water. Not often do we get a five species gull day on Lake Bemidji (alas no Franklin's Gull to make six species). Also found on or near the lake were one Caspian Tern, one Forster's Tern, a flock of a dozen or so unidentified terns, two large flocks of pelicans (50 plus birds), and the first Harris' Sparrow of the fall.
Doug Johnson, Bemidji -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://moumn.org/pipermail/mou-net_moumn.org/attachments/20080914/a5386ee1/attachment-0001.html
