Thanks to D. Wheeler for posting (to GeneseeBirds) the 3rd-basic CALIFORNIA GULL above Niagara Falls at Goat Island. The bird spent from about 3:50 to 4:20 p.m. amongst a small flock of Ring-bills on the shelf just upstream from the third sister island near the large stranded log. It was very active chasing leaves in the water and defending them from any interested Ring-bills--perhaps it was fascinated by the leaves due to their scarcity in the mid-west...Anyways at one point all the birds flushed and flew downriver after which it did not return to the shelf, although a short time later Bill Watson arrived and after standing around for about 10 minutes talking to a nice girl from Germany the bird made one more appearance flying downstream with a group of 2 Ring-bills in pursuit of a small stick floating in the water. Also on the shelf nearby was an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull. Feeding in the rapids in litterally a "mat" from the upstream end of Goat Island downstream to the island mid-river, were 1290 Swallows, all of which appeared to be Northern Rough-wingeds. Even after scanning through the flock several times I could not find any other species with them. Large numbers (3000+) of Ring-bills and smaller numbers (800+) of Bonaparte's were all through the falls area, both above and below. Earlier in the day in the strong WSW winds at Buffalo Harbor, Bill Watson and I had 3 Black-bellied Plovers at the edge of the large gravel parking lot in the small boat harbor across from Tifft NP (the same spot as nearly a week earlier), along with 2 Common Terns. Also some photos from today can be viewed in the 09 album here: _http://picasaweb.google.com/jmpawli88_ (http://picasaweb.google.com/jmpawli88) Jim Pawlicki Amherst, NY
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