Hello!

While spending part of our day birding with Dan Sanders and Doreene  Linzell,
they informed Ken and Julie Davis and I of a Laughing Gull  seen at Lorain
Harbor by the Columbus Avids group earlier in the day.   After searching in vain
for the Snowy Owl at Burke later in the afternoon, the  three of us headed
over to Lorain before dark.  We arrived at about 4:40 PM  and in a short time,
we observed a "gull of interest" that was facing us that  appeared to be a
possible Franklin's Gull based on a smaller black bill, a  darker gray mantle,
larger in size compared to neighboring  Bonaparte's, and a solid patch of black
across the back of the head.   We could not get a good look at the back half of
the body to verify our  thought before the bird spooked and flew off.

Whatever spooked that bird also caused most of the flock to fly up and land
and short distance later directly in front of our location at the end of the
jetty or peninsula accessed through a narrow opening in the chain-linked fence
 around the area.  A few minutes of scanning this flock yielded at least 5
clearly identified Laughing Gulls, with 3 of them floating together within  the
flotilla of gulls.  The dark smudges on the back of their heads were  obvious
as were the larger black bills, and the lack of white spots on the  wingtips.
As they preened and stretched their wings, we could clearly see that  the
black wing tips blended directly into the darker gray upperwing.  A  short time
later near dusk, the hunters along the breakwater collectively shot  off their
guns which spooked the flotilla again and they flew farther away  before we
could observe more of the flotilla, so we decided to leave.

Looking back toward the mouth of the river just south of the upraised
drawbridge, we could see many more gulls than were in the harbor.  We  estimated
that there were at least 3000 gulls in the area (mostly Bonaparte's,
Ring-Billed, Herring) and wished we had the time to look through more of them  for some
rarities.

We also saw the Cackling Goose at Whitehaven Cemetery earlier in the day
around 10:30 AM, saw the Black and Surf Scoters at Sims Park, and as previously
mentioned, did not see the Snowy Owl at Burke Airport.

Rob Lowry
Powell, Ohio


**************AOL Search: Your one stop for directions, recipes and all other
Holiday needs. Search Now.
(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1212792382x1200798498/aol?redir=http://searchblog.aol.com/2008/11/04/happy-holidays-from
-aol-search/?ncid=emlcntussear00000001)

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]