Duluth? Again? Yep.

The lure of quality birds and good weather was to much to ignore yet again. With little to do on a Sunday I decided on another run north. The radar and forecast was looking good and then I learned what the lake can produce on it's own. 20+ mph wind with sleet, snow, and cold. Luckily the Subaru can take care of business and I rolled into Duluth Canal park by 7:45am after getting up at 5am to leave. Birding is a special kind of crazy.

My goal on the day was gulls at Canal Park and then some specialties at Agate Bay in Two Harbors.

Gulls were just coming into the canal to rest on the ice and wait for food. I was able to snag just Thayer's Gull as a new gull on the year and figured after a little bit that I should get north fast and try to take care of Two Harbors before the weather got any worse.

Once in the small town of Two Harbors I started working the lake walk and lighthouse parking area for the reported Harlequin Duck. The wind was brutal but avoidable if you hunkered down in some less windy niches. The entire bay was open, but choppy the closer you got to the edge of the break wall. I was able to spot Bufflehead, Red-breasted Merganser amongst a few other groups of common winter water birds. I ran into a couple guys I had seen down in Duluth and we all began a scope session on the Ore Docks across the bay to see if we could pull in the small male Harlequin.

After a few moments of scope time while talking about what I had seen thus far and what they picked up in the canal after I left, I found the Harlequin. The bird was hard to make out, but still obvious with the white strap on the body and overall dark body tone. The others confirmed shortly while one of them found a raft of Long-tailed Duck out near the far break wall. This was excellent as it pulled in my 3rd year bird and all of my targets for Agate Bay.

Harlequin was especially good as it was a life bird for me. We pulled in another view or two from a different position, but it was tough going with the choppy water and active bird dives for food. I did get several looks at the distant Long-tails as well as a couple in flight, which was nice.

I eventually piled back in the car to get to Duluth again for a second gull session. This time fortune was with me as I picked up Glaucous Gull in a stationary position (my first) as it hulked over the nearby Herring and Thayer's Gulls. The bird even in 1st Winter is nearly impossible to not pick out against such a group. I then found the Iceland Gull, which was like looking at a mini Glaucous as it was noticeably smaller than the Herring's, but still had the nearly white with light brown washed feathers. I worked this group of gulls for a long while, watching them and comparing. I tried to working on Thayer's vs Herring with some luck as I found an adult Thayer's to use for some compares and was able to see the larger white primary tips along with slightly smaller bill and different head profile. Very tough birds to tell, but I was also able to use the many stages of Herring to look at feather groups and understand the composition and point out the many stages of life of these 4+ cycle birds. It was very fun even with the wicked wind and weather always coming down.

I left the day with just missing Greater Black-backed Gull on my list of day birds. Not to bad really. I was on the road and back home by 3:30PM so it was a pretty nice day that left me plenty of time to hang out with Melissa.

Birding and being outside, even in nasty weather, really does light up my soul.

Post thoughts on the north: I feel I've done a pretty solid job of winter birding the north. With three trips and this one being very targetted I have pulled in a lot of winter birds of the north and was able to snag many life birds while learning birding techniques for several of them. Finding birds on open, choppy water is a challenge, but possible and requires a lot of patience and scope scanning the same area multiple times.

Reasonable Misses of the North: Northern Goshawk, Spruce Grouse, Black-backed Woodpecker, Red Crossbill, White-winged Crossbill, Greater Black-backed Gull

I find the above list to be pretty small after 3 trips and I feel good about my winter efforts. I figure I'll only winter trip again if another rarity shows up on the water or in the harbor area like a Gyrfalcon or something. I also feel like Black-backed Woodpecker will be a solid shot during summer as well in the bog as it is resident so I can hopefully get it when I try for Conneticut Warbler and a few others.