With the gull numbers so high , about 3500 I saw, its tough to pick out anything good. With time constraints of work and no scope, the best I could do is scan quickly with eight power binoculars. Unless a good bird is in the front of the mass, I could just about say fuhgggeeettttaaabooouuuiittt! It requires a decent scope and much patience --time-- to pick out a hidden rare gull. I was able to count up to nine GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULLS scattered with the large flock.
But pretty obvious this morning was the NORTHERN SHOVELER. The mass of them from the photo I took numbered pretty high. I estimated in a quick count about 380 birds. That despite only a small portion of the lake open. With warmer temperatures coming , the lake will open up. But ice will not melt that quickly and gulls should present opportunities for study.
