This morning I birdwatched with four other good friends in town, walking from "dune bridge parking lot," out to the the Superior Entry and back. It was a refreshing and beautiful 4-mile, round-trip walk. We had ~50 SNOW BUNTINGS follow us most of the way. One of the first highlights was spotting a distant RED-THROATED LOON out near three HORNED GREBES. One lone COMMON REDPOLL flew overhead, and while scanning the gulls at the Superior Entry (from the Minnesota Side), we picked out three THAYER'S GULLS. One Thayer's Gull was was a juvenile, and the other two were adults. Of the two adults, one had a pure white head, and likely a hurt leg. My friends had never seen a Thayer's Gull before (several of them were visiting from Cape May for a short time). We had views of Herring Gulls next to Thayer's Gulls like in the image below (from two years ago): http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/119193223 ...on this photo, note the Thayer's Gull's more round head, pale tertials (feathers that overlay the primary tips), and slightly paler primaries. Thayer's Gulls also have a slightly paler backside and head profile overall. My ebird list from this morning is below: Mallard 1 scoter sp. 7 Common Goldeneye 1 Common Merganser 2 Red-throated Loon 1 Pied-billed Grebe 3 Double-crested Cormorant 1 Bald Eagle 2 Bonaparte's Gull 4 Ring-billed Gull 40 Herring Gull 80 Thayer's Gull 3 Rock Pigeon 2 Downy Woodpecker 1 American Crow 2 Black-capped Chickadee 3 Red-breasted Nuthatch 1 European Starling 2 Snow Bunting 50 American Tree Sparrow 2 White-throated Sparrow 10 Dark-eyed Junco 15 Common Redpoll 1 Pine Siskin 3 Wanted to let all of you know that as of this past week, Hawk Ridge has surpassed 62,000 raptors for this fall season! Here are some pictures from the past few weeks at the ridge. Banded Black-capped Chickadee at Sunrise, photographed yesterday http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/139092916 Northern Goshawk http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/138856458 http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/138856457 Rufous morph Red-tailed Hawk http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/138959395 http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/138959392 http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/138959390 Gorgeous storm clouds on the horizon http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/138987418 American Robin http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/139092913 Good birding, Erik Bruhnke Duluth, MN -- *NATURALLY AVIAN* - Bird photography and guided birdwatching trips www.pbase.com/birdfedr www.naturallyavian.blogspot.com [log in to unmask] ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html