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August 2009

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From:
Cameron Rutt <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Cameron Rutt <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:13:27 -0600
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  Thanks to Peder Svingen for passing along word of the White-winged
Dove.  I stumbled upon the bird last evening (~5:15 PM; 8/24) perched
singly on a telephone wire, just south of the intersection of Superior
Street and 54th Avenue East, but north of the railroad tracks.  The
bird remained there long enough for me to pull over, grab the bins,
and secure a good look before, of course, taking off as soon as I went
for the cell phone.  It flew SW over the railroad tracks towards the
intersection where 52nd Avenue East and Dodge Street team up to run
into Superior Street.  I proceeded to circle the neighborhood for the
better part of a half hour in a fruitless attempt to try to refind the
bird.  Anyhow, while it seems likely that this bird is ancient history
by now, if anyone is in the neighborhood, it may still be worth a
look.  I drove by the 54th Avenue location today and, not
surprisingly, no White-winged Dove was to be seen.

  Also last night, Josh Bednar and I surveyed the nighthawk scene from
atop an apartment complex along Superior Street at 60th Avenue East,
Lakeside.  It appeared as though the flight had a pretty abrupt start,
with practically zero (<100) tallied at Hawk Ridge in the
afternoon/early evening before the count was wrapped up at 5:30 PM.
We noted the first sizable group at approximately 6:10 PM, with 1,200
passing by in the following 20 minutes, mainly looking towards Hawk
Ridge (inland) from our site.  However, as the night wore on, the
flocks of birds morphed into a dispersed stream of nighthawks that
eventually were flying overhead and along the lakeshore.  Birds were
counted in 15 minute time bands, the lowest being 800 birds, the
highest just shy of 1500, but a pretty steady passage over the course
of the next two hours.  The flight was basically over at or before
8:30 PM, with a total of 10,379 nighthawks winging their way past the
rooftop in nearly two hour's time!  However, as it now turns out, this
appeared to be merely a precursor for tonight's movement (8/25).  Karl
Bardon reported the final figure from Hawk Ridge at a whopping 13,154
nighthawks, equaling 23,533 in the last two nights.  Approximately
11,000 of the Hawk Ridge birds today were seen from 4:20 PM onwards,
with the flight dwindling noticeably towards dusk.  Tonight's movement
was almost all on the lakeshore, scope-scanned from the ridge.  As a
first timer to fall migration in Duluth, this was truly an amazing
spectacle.

     Good Birding,
        Cameron Rutt
        Duluth,
        St. Louis County

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