Ivory Gulls in Duluth
WINGIN’ IT By Kate Crowley The last thing I would expect to happen in the heart of a Minnesota winter is to add a new ‘life’ bird to my list, but that’s just what happened a week ago in Duluth. Maybe you heard the news reports about the Ivory Gull that appeared on December 30 th along the shipping canal in Duluth. Soon after it was identified, word spread in the ‘birding’ world. People began to come from all over the country to get a look at it. Ivory gulls are normally found in winter on the edge of the pack ice of the Arctic Ocean, or at sea between southwest Greenland and Labrador. Jan Green of Duluth is a well-known birder and according to her an Ivory Gull was last seen in Duluth in 2008, but it was only seen for one day. This new arrival continued to hang around Canal Park with the other more common ring-billed gulls. I was hoping it would stay long enough for me to get a look and luck was with me. On January 5 th , I final...