After the morning's point counts I called in at Kiwanis Community Park lake, deep in Tempe, to try and locate the Franklin's Gull found by Pierre Deviche a few days earlier. There it was, the only gull present loafing with American Coots, Lesser Scaup and Ring-necked Ducks! The bird is already well adapted to its urban surroundings, freely scavenging bread from folks feeding the ducks and coots. Franklin's is still one of my favorite gulls and these could be the best views I've had of a first-winter bird.
Another nice surprise for the urban setting was a Prairie Falcon which appeared briefly, 'buzzing' the coots and ducks grazing on the lawns. Digibin images taken using Leica 8 x 42 binoculars with Canon Powershot A540 compact digital.
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