Howdy All, I arrived at the south beach last night at just before 6:00 pm after getting my van from repairs later than expected and fighting through rush hour traffic. The Franklin's gulls were not on the beach with the local flock of Ring-billed Gulls, but that was apparently due to people walking their dogs on the beach and later another group pushing a baby carriage on the sand. I scanned the lake with binoculars and found two gulls alone out on the lake at least half-way across the lake. I found them in my telescope, and they were the two Franklin's Gulls. Eventually a Ring-billed Gull joined them. With these distant scope views I could see that the dark hood that is complete around the back of the head, the relatively small size relative to Ring-billed Gull and the small all dark bill, the dark primaries (too far to see the white edges of the primaries) and the white edging between the tertials and the primaries. I needed 60X on my telescope to get the best view. They moved around due to boats moving around on the lake. They swam closer to the beach at one point so that could see the white around the eye at 60X, but they never joined the Ring-billed Gulls on the beach or came really close to the beach. I watched them for about 45 minutes as the moved around on the lake escaping disturbance by the boats and fishermen. They stayed out on the lake until the light started fading at about 7:00 pm due to the sun setting and the approaching cloud cover. I left at about 7:00 pm. Jay Jay G. Lehman Cincinnati, OH [log in to unmask] ______________________________________________________________________ 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]