Took a trip up to the lakeshore today in the misty rain. All three species
of scoters have been reported at Sims the last few weeks, and we found all
three. At Sims, we saw 20 black scoters, 10 white-winged scoters, and one
surf scoter. The latter was possibly still in alternate plumage, but it was
pretty distant in the fog. At Sims we also saw a dozen horned grebes, six
common loons, and two red-throated loons, all in basic plumage. There were
also about 30 common goldeneye. We stopped at Mentor Beach park along
Lakeshore Blvd and saw flocks of 9 hooded mergansers and 7 ruddy ducks.
There was not a lot of interest at Headlands Dunes at Painesville except
two ruby-crowned kinglets, but on the east side of the Grand River at
Fairport Harbor park, there was a group of 5 surf scoters at pretty close
range, that were easy to study. The high point of the day, was one of these
surf scoters was in full alternate plumage with the clown-like,
multi-colored bill and white patches on the head and nape. A wonderful
sighting! Talking to a local birder who was there, he said that scoter had
been there the last 2-3 days. For the day, we had a total of 24 species. A
great winter day on the Lake!
Randy Rowe, Wooster

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.


You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
listserv.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]