This morning I got out gull-watching at sunrise, and had a fantastic time! For about the first half of my time this morning, I observed, then counted the gulls. Herring Gulls made up the majority of the gulls seen, with Ring-billed Gulls mixed in. Then one gull flew over with just pale-as-could-be wings. I thought Thayer's or Iceland. After getting to study the bird much closer, I was able to say Iceland Gull for this one individual! Note the short bill, very pale primaries (paler than the overall wings), and scrawled/detailed tertials. Tertials are the section of feathers that just slightly overlap bird's tail (while the bird is perched). I just got into gulls last winter, but since then, I'm really getting the differences between Iceland Gulls and Thayer's Gulls. Also, the Iceland Gulls are more petite-proportioned, whereas the just slightly larger Thayer's Gulls tend to be a little more robustly-proportioned with the head and body size. Here's my checklist from about 1 1/2 hours of gull watching: Location: Duluth--Canal Park Observation date: 11/7/09 Number of species: 6 Red-breasted Merganser 1 Ring-billed Gull 45 Herring Gull 264 Iceland Gull 1 European Starling 1 House Sparrow 2 Here are my photos from today! http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/park_pointcanal_park_2009 Good birdwatching, Erik Bruhnke Duluth, MN [log in to unmask] NATURALLY AVIAN - Guided bird tours & bird photography ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html