What's with the seagulls?

We visited Lake Saylorville on Saturday.  The Des Moines River that feeds into the lake is about six miles east from where we live, but to go see the lake we have to travel about fifteen miles south of here.

The normal seagulls that frequent the lake area and also farm fields were all working the overflow river below the dam. The low amount of water coming through the overflow spout was creating a  great foam on the surface of the water.

All around the lake the edges of the water have thawed but out in the middle there is still ice. When I looked out on the ice I saw this white flock of birds. The grouping of the seagulls on the ice seems strange to see unless they are actually migrating seagulls.  In a couple of more days that ice won't be there and their rest will be over and done.

Two other areas below the dam also had flocks of the gulls standing around or floating together.  I have seen this in Minnesota before but they would be grouped on small islands where they were raising chicks.  Rookeries I believe is what they call the hatching areas.  These groups were not doing anything special except hanging out together.  I may be wrong about the migration idea but it does seem strange to see them all together in a flock like this unless they were in a migratory cycle.  I might add that I was disappointed that the birds weren't white pelicans.  The pelican does migrate through this lake area and I usually don't have the camera with me when we see them.

The neighbor had us over to the dam looking for bald eagles.  Some of her relatives had seen a large number of them hanging around in the trees along the lake and on the shore just a few days ago.  We did see some and I will share the photos on the next blog as well as on my photo a day blog. Bring your magnifying glass with you when I post the photos that I took.

We don't see the American Bald Eagle in our area very often but we had seen  one along the roadside a few miles west of us just recently.  We have seen large groups of them along the Des Moines River while driving through the east Des Moines area.

The photo above is a view of the dam for Saylorville Lake.  As you can see it could use a lot more water in it that what you see here.  Two years ago it was filled to the top of these rocks when the rains were in excess.

More photos to come from our one day outing at the lake.  Thanks for stopping by today.  Have a great Saturday.