William Maringo, Peter Nubec, and I saw several other good birds before we identified the Glossy Ibis. At Plover Prairie we viewed the combined Prairie-Chicken and Sharp-tailed Grouse leck and saw both species, on the East side of the road we had a Henslow's sparrow singing. Along the road on the South side of Plover Prairie we had several Le Conte's singing on Saturday evening. We stopped by the other Sharp-tailed Grouse leck and saw eight birds. We then proceeded to the dam along US highway 75 and there was a Snowy Egret below the dam. It took off as soon as we got there. We went up on the dike to see we could get pictures after it flew north but it continued to fly west out over the impoundment. As we were on the dike a large gull flew over us from the East out over the impoundment, it was an adult bird that was distinctly black on the back and top of wings, it had a white head and tail. The unusual thing about the bird was the fact the underwings were a dark brown, something I had not seen before. There were two Ring-billed gulls flying around so we could definitely say the bird was larger that them. The back was much darker than any California Gulls I have seen so I am guessing that it was a Lesser Black-backed Gull particularly since it appeared to be a longer winged bird. We blocked the road and were fortunate that another car of birders came up behind us and got out and told us about the Ibis near Madison. Plover Prairie is about one mile south and two miles east of the dam on US 75. Paul Egeland
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