offshore Lake Michigan WGLBBO surveys

The last day of our offshore surveys by aircraft for the spring brought looks at more than 10,000 gulls - probably 70% of which were Bonaparte's Gulls. Each recent week the number of diving ducks (and diving duck species) has diminished. Mostly Red-breasted Mergansers are present offshore now, but a few loons of both species, some Horned Grebes, and the gulls -- still including numbers of huge, gleaming-white Glaucous Gulls are present, with many gulls seen as far as 6,7, or 8 miles offshore. All this past week, the Bonaparte's "owned the Lake".