The unseasonably warm weather in Duluth has certainly been to a seagull's liking- besides the adult Glaucous-winged Gull, there are currently many gulls in the Duluth harbor. Last Saturday on the Duluth CBC we conservatively counted 1750 Herring Gulls (twice the previous record), and on Sunday I counted over 2500 Herring Gulls in the harbor. Also present are at least 4 Great Black-backed Gulls (1 adult, 1 third-cycle, 1 second-cycle, and 1 first-cycle), at least 5 Iceland Gulls (2 first-cycles, 1 third-cycle, and 2 adults), at least 18 Thayer's Gulls (2 first-cycles, 3 second-cycles, 3 third-cycles, and around 10 adults), and at least 14 Glaucous Gulls (10 first cycles, 2 second-cycles, and 2 adults). Three Ring-billed Gulls hanging on to the season brought today's count to 7 species of gulls. The best place to see these birds is at Canal Park in the early afternoon. I posted some additional Glaucous-winged Gull shots at www.pbase.com/karlbardon, as well as some of my favorite gull shots from this season thus far. I have yet to finish sorting the overall number of individual gulls as I have done in the past, but the totals number of less common gulls has not been as high as last year. My thanks to Peder Svingen for helping to convince me today's bird really was a Glaucous-winged. Previous Minnesota records include an adult in the Twin Cities from 19 October-24 December 1995, a second-cycle bird at Duluth-Superior from 26 November-13 December 1997, and a first-cycle bird at Grand Marais on 1 December 1997. Karl Bardon Duluth
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