We started out the day heading to Wisconsin Point to the Superior
We started out the day heading to Wisconsin Point to the Superior Entry Way to look for gulls that might be loafing on the break walls and also look for the reported Barrow's Goldeneye that Karl Bardon found a few weeks ago. We spotted the Barrow's Goldeneye originally on the Wisconsin side but the ice movement moved the Barrow's Goldneye back into Minnesota waters. I estimated that there were at least 600 Common Goldeneyes in the entry area. After viewing and photographing the Barrow's Goldeneye we headed to the Superior Landfill to see what gulls we could find. The gulls were mostly leaving the landfill probably due to some Bald Eagles in the area and our highlight was spotting the Slaty-backed Gull leaving the Wisconsin Landfill and heading out to Lake Superior. We then drove over to Gull Bluff which is a overlook area just east of the landfill where birders and sight seers can view Lake Superior. We saw at least 3,000 gulls loafing way out in the ice due east of the bluff but the distance and the heat waves made spotting gull species impossible. We then headed to Canal Park and spent the next 2 hours on this sunny day studying Thayer's Gulls, a Iceland Gull, Glaucous Gulls, Great Black-backed Gulls and Herring Gulls. The biggest find was when Pete Hoeger spotted the Slaty-backed Gull on the ice out from the break wall on north side. Peder Svingen confirmed the identity and everyone had really good looks of this gull. We ended up observing 2 first cycle Thayer's Gulls, 3 second cycle Thayer's Gulls, 1 third cycle Thayer's Gulls, 2 adult Thayer's Gulls, 1 second cycle Iceland Gull, 3 second cycle Glaucous Gull, 1 first cycle Glaucous Gull, 1 adult Glaucous Gull, 3 first cycle Great Black-backed Gulls, 1 third cycle Great Black-backed Gull and 1 adult Great Black-backed Gull. All together we observed 7 species of gull which included 2 adult Ring-billed Gulls and about 700 plus Herring Gulls. I would like to acknowledge that Pam Perry who was part of the Gull Workshop was at 295 for her Minnesota life list and with the gulls and the Barrow's Goldeneye, Pam is now at 301 for her Minnesota life list. Congrats Pam!! Also Tom Malone who was sitting at 299 got to see the Slaty-backed Gull for his 300th Minnesota bird. Congrats Tom!! Most importantly I would like to thank Peder Svingen, Larry and Jan Kraemer for helping my participants view the gulls from their spotting scopes and also calling out gull species. THANK YOU!! This was a lot of fun and I would like to do this again next year. Mike Mike Hendrickson Duluth, Minnesota MikeHendricksonGuiding.com Sax-ZimBog.com ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
