On Thursday night, I birded the Lake Michigan shoreline from Kohler Andre State Park to Cleveland as part of and on my way home from the Wisconsin Wetlands Association Conference. I found all the usual suspects including black scoter, white-winged scoter, greater and lesser black-backed gulls, common loon and red-throated loons, normal Lake Michigan duck species. As I was about to call it a night, I noticed an odd looking gull in the distance. It had an pecular brownish hue that seemed almost reddish-brown in low light conditions. There were noticable scalene triangular white solid patterns in the secondary primaries which increased in width from the leading to the trailing edge of the wings. The remainder of the wing had the brownish hue. The tail was almost entirely white with the exception of a small brownish trapezoidal area at the base of the tail. The wings appeared longer and thinner than the ring-billed and herring gulls in the area. The flight pattern was more characteristic of a Boniparte Gull than other species common along the Lake Michigan shoreline. THe bird was observed in fading light conditions around 5:10PM. I watched the bird from the southern to northern horizon at Fischer Creek, a UWGB property. The bird flew in a southwest to north-northeasterly pattern into the middle of Lake Michigan where I lost the individual as a speck. Due to the unusuall plummage and coloration, I did not attempt to take a photograph. I used every moment to create a thorough mental image of the bird to ID it upon returning to the car. COnsulting my Sibley's and North American NatGeo guides indicates the only possible identification is an immature SABINE'S GULL. I viewed the individual at about 200 yards until it veered into the middle of the lake. I spotted the bird while looking south along the shoreline and watched it for several minutes. I have no doubts in this conclusion . Sorry for the late post as I've had other family and work obligations which prevented this post in a timely manner. If your in the Sheboygan - Manitowoc areas, keep an open eye. I hope someone else can re-find and photograph the bird. Jon Motquin Freedom, Outagamie Co. > #################### You received this email because you are subscribed to the Wisconsin Birding Network (Wisbirdn). To UNSUBSCRIBE or SUBSCRIBE, use the Wisbirdn web interface at: //www.freelists.org/list/wisbirdn To set DIGEST or VACATION modes, use the Wisbirdn web interface at: //www.freelists.org/list/wisbirdn Visit Wisbirdn ARCHIVES at: //www.freelists.org/archives/wisbirdn