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August 2009

MOU-RBA@LISTS.UMN.EDU

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From:
Peder Svingen <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Peder Svingen <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:47:28 -0600
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During my lunch hour today (8/24), I watched two jaegers lunching with  
Ring-billed Gulls at the Park Point Recreation Area, Duluth. I first  
spotted one of the jaegers pursue a Ring-billed across the ball fields  
at the Recreation Area. From the Beach House, I refound what was  
presumably the same bird on Lake Superior and watched it for 30  
minutes as it repeatedly harassed the Ring-billed Gulls. My views were  
so good that I could see the food morsels regurgitated by the gulls as  
the jaeger attacked. The jaeger eventually landed on the water and  
stayed there for about 10 minutes while preening.
This was clearly an adult light-morph Parasitic Jaeger wearing a black  
beret, whitish face and neck, brownish mantle with darker folded wing  
tips, white belly and flanks with a smooth brown breast band, and  
sharply pointed central rectrices that extended just beyond the wing  
tips at rest. In flight, it showed a pale primary flash on both the  
dorsal and ventral wing surfaces. Its wingspan was less than any of  
the Ring-billeds that it pursued.
After the bird finished preening and took flight again, I noticed a  
second jaeger flying right next to it. My views of the second bird  
were not satisfactory, but its wingspan appeared to be about the same  
as the first jaeger and in all probability, it was also a Parasitic.  
The second jaeger was a subadult with shorter, but still sharply  
pointed central rectrices. I was unable to refind either bird during  
an hour long search after work.
This evening between 6:35 and 7:05 PM, I counted 2,668 Common  
Nighthawks migrating along the North Shore from the pedestrian  
overpass near the Rose Garden at Leif Erikson Park. I reluctantly  
stopped counting when a large mass of nighthawks reversed course and  
flew east, where they mingled with hundreds of Ring-billed Gulls and  
hundreds more nighthawks.
Finally, I received a second hand report of a White-winged Dove seen  
flying west along the railroad right-of-way near 54th Ave East and  
Superior Street, Duluth. The bird could not be refound shortly after  
its discovery late this afternoon.

Peder Svingen
Duluth, MN




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