This morning at Wisconsin Point, I had a good look at gulls at the landfill and was treated to what seemed like endless amounts of redpolls. Throughout the length of the point, I observed at least 600 redpolls. At one specific point, there was gathering of multiple redpoll flocks that easily could have numbered 400 or more (in one huge group of birds in flight)! I've never seen so many at one time! One Rough-legged Hawk was hanging out in a tree alongside the first parkinglot on WI Point. Nearby were two Pine Grosbeaks. Over a dozen Common Mergansers were seen on the lake-side of WI Point, in addition to a few distant Common Goldeneyes.
At the landfill I had a 3rd winter/adult nonbreeding GLAUCOUS GULL. I viewed this bird for a few brief moments, and the white primaries with a pale gray back really stood out. I was unable to see the bird's bill, and didn't happen to catch the amount of markings on the bird's head, or see it's bill in time to confirm it's age. It was facing away from me, then flushed with the many other nearby gulls. I also had a GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL at the landfill. It looks very similar to the individual I found last week.They're so darn cool! Now here's the thing... I got my photographs up on pbase from this morning and last week's sightings, but they're unedited (only cropped). I'll tweak the photos a bit once I get the software on this new computer. This link will take you to the gull and duck photos (Long-tailed Duck, Surf Scoter, and White-winged Scoter in there too). Enjoy! http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/temp_bird_photos_11182008 Good birding, Erik Bruhnke Duluth, MN birdfedr at gmail.com www.pbase.com/birdfedr -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://moumn.org/pipermail/mou-net_moumn.org/attachments/20081118/1004927b/attachment.html>
