One current and one slightly belated set of sightings to share. Yesterday morning, I arrived at Canal Park at sunrise. Throughout my 2 hours of gull-watching, I had a small group of COMMON REDPOLLS fly over. One of the weirdest sightings was a flyover AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER! I'm not sure how long these typically stick around for, but this little guy seemed to be coming through quite late!
As for the gulls, I had a pale-secondaried, dark-washed primaried gull, which was Herring Gull in overall Size. Solid pale gray-brown tail, and smudged light gray blotches throughout the entire frontside of the bird The bird looked like a slightly taller Herring Gull (as for size, but the wings had considerable depth from front to back). This bird had the off-but-fitting appearance of a NELSON'S GULL (Herring Gull x Glaucous Gull hybrid). there was another gull that I believe was a second Nelson's Gull, with a considerably paler appearance overall, but still had bits of washed darkness throughout the wing tips. Pictures to come later, once we get our home internet back up. This morning I got to Canal Park shortly after sunrise, and today's sightings were were more Herring Gull-based, whereas yesterday's sightings were roughly 2/3 Ring-billed Gull and 1/3 Herring Gull. A few female Mallards flew by, and a small flock of Red-breasted Mergansers zipped on by as well. This time of year is so fun... far-north gulls starting to show up, late-fall raptors moving through, winter finches moving through, and who knows what else will show up! Here at my new house in Duluth (after moving out of the hotel from the fall season), I've been treated to a wonderful diversity of birds in the yard. Downy Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, White-breasted Nuthatch, Black-capped Chickadee, Dark-eyed Juncos and White-winged Crossbills have been making regular apperances. There's a few colorful Pigeons that waddle on the rooftops too! Good birdwatching, Erik Bruhnke Duluth, MN NATURALLY AVIAN - Bird photography and guided bird hikes www.pbase.com/birdfedr [email protected] ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
