Thanks to Caleb Ashling's precise and accurate directions I was able to easily find the location where he reported seeing a dark-gray mantled gull yesterday afternoon. Late this afternoon in Burnsville, Dakota County from a frontage road hill along the south side of State Hwy 13, west of Dakota CR 5 looking north across State Hwy 13 toward the landfill I was easily able to see hundreds of Gulls sitting on the rooftop of a large white building just east of Menards.
The Lesser Black-backed Gull stood out like a beacon among the sea of light mantled Gulls. Both Ring-billed and Herring Gulls were around for a side by side comparison showing it to be mid-size between the two. The dark slate-gray upperparts showed a strong contrast to its unmarked white underparts and tail. The bill was yellow with a red-orange gonydeal spot, and it showed off those bright yellow legs when it got up and walked around. It was fun to be able to look down at these Gulls on a rooftop even though it was at a good distance and a spotting scope would be needed to see them clearly. http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Frontage+Rd&hl=en&ll=44.774935,-93.309138&spn=0.007708,0.018475&sll=44.768354,-93.282938&sspn=0.007708,0.018475&geocode=FXUuqwIdMTxw-g&t=h&mra=mr&z=16 Conny Brunell Richfield, Hennepin Co. ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
