Peder Svingen Duluth, MN
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During my lunch hour today (8/24), I watched two jaegers lunching with
Ring-billed Gulls at the Park Point Recreation Area, Duluth. I first
spotted one of the jaegers pursue a Ring-billed across the ball fields
at the Recreation Area. From the Beach House, I refound what was
presumably the same bird on Lake Superior and watched it for 30
minutes as it repeatedly harassed the Ring-billed Gulls. My views were
so good that I could see the food morsels regurgitated by the gulls as
the jaeger attacked. The jaeger eventually landed on the water and
stayed there for about 10 minutes while preening.
This was clearly an adult light-morph Parasitic Jaeger wearing a black
beret, whitish face and neck, brownish mantle with darker folded wing
tips, white belly and flanks with a smooth brown breast band, and
sharply pointed central rectrices that extended just beyond the wing
tips at rest. In flight, it showed a pale primary flash on both the
dorsal and ventral wing surfaces. Its wingspan was less than any of
the Ring-billeds that it pursued.
After the bird finished preening and took flight again, I noticed a
second jaeger flying right next to it. My views of the second bird
were not satisfactory, but its wingspan appeared to be about the same
as the first jaeger and in all probability, it was also a Parasitic.
The second jaeger was a subadult with shorter, but still sharply
pointed central rectrices. I was unable to refind either bird during
an hour long search after work.
This evening between 6:35 and 7:05 PM, I counted 2,668 Common
Nighthawks migrating along the North Shore from the pedestrian
overpass near the Rose Garden at Leif Erikson Park. I reluctantly
stopped counting when a large mass of nighthawks reversed course and
flew east, where they mingled with hundreds of Ring-billed Gulls and
hundreds more nighthawks.
Finally, I received a second hand report of a White-winged Dove seen
flying west along the railroad right-of-way near 54th Ave East and
Superior Street, Duluth. The bird could not be refound shortly after
its discovery late this afternoon.
