Today I went gull watching with Cameron Rutt and Aldo Reyes at the Superior Entry. We gull-watched for just over 3 hours today. Among the many Herring Gulls and Ring-billed Gulls we found one immature Glaucous Gull. Mike Hendrickson joined up with Cameron, Aldo and I shortly after we arrived at the Point. Peder Svingen joined up with us after the Slaty-backed Gull was initially seen. Every once in a while the whole flock of gulls would flush, and some current gullwould land back on the entry sides, whereas other gulls would leave the area. As the afternoon progressed, we found some new birds moving into the entryway. After one of the flushes, I was scanning around, and noticed one gull that landed on the MN side of the entryway. There was three things that stood out on the bird as I viewed it for a few brief seconds through binoculars. 1. Very dark back 2. Thick, contrastive, white trailing edge of the bird's wings.This is also known as a 'skirt.' 3. Vivid pink legs. I shouted out 'dark-backed gull', and we got on the bird right away. This was the Slaty-backed Gull! I have been trying to see this gull for the past several years (since the Slaty-backed Gull was observed a few years ago at the Superior Landfill). Throughout my time at Northland College, I struck out every winter, and right nowI'm walking on air to the fact that I got to see this beautiful bird for the first time. Pictures are to come soon, but I wanted to give everybody a head's-up that the Slaty-backed Gull was seen today. I'm just starting with the photo editing now, and I'll be posting those later tonight. Good birdwatching, Erik Bruhnke Duluth, MN NATURALLY AVIAN - Guided bird hikes and bird photography [log in to unmask] www.pbase.com/birdfedr/naturallyavian ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html