jerry talkington, suzanne wagner, emil bacik and i had a good morning watching the lakefront at headlands beach state park and mentor lagoons today (11/11/2008).  a second walk past the lighthouse yielded a first-winter franklin's gull, a close winter adult black-headed gull, and a distant, rather bulky looking jaeger which was probably a pomarine jaeger.  earlier we had observed a very dark appearing parasitic jaeger harassing gulls out over the lake as we stood on the east beach.

a search for scoters at mentor lagoons yielded both black and surf scoters and another parasitic jaeger menacing a victim ring-billed gull.  minutes before we initially saw both of the parasitic jaegers many gulls rose from the water, it is as if they can sense impending danger in the form of a parasitic jaeger.  on many occasions over the years we have observed gulls, usually in good numbers, rise before the arrival of a marauding jaeger.  this is a good clue these sea pirates may be along a particular stretch of lake erie water.

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