I was at Sims Park this morning from after 9:30 to 11:30am.  There was a SURF SCOTER  in the lake east of the pier.  It was continually diving and moving around and it was raining after I arrived hampering visibility.   It eventually cleared up.  It finally flew west so I could see it clearly and ended up in the west end of the park.  It keeps flying and rechanging its location.  It was very dark, very creamy belly, small bold white area on side of cheek, and when it flew there was no white in any of the wings.  It was not a Black Scoter.   At 11am a group of eleven very dark birds flew east that looked like they were probably scoters.  Some of the gusts were over 35 to 40 mph.  This is the first scoter I have seen at Sims Park this fall.
 
 
The park was full of Yellow-rumped Warblers, saw one White-crowned Sparrow, two Hermit Thrush and Golden-crowned Kinglets as I quickly walked through the area from the lake to the woods.
 
Nancy Anderson
Richmond Hts, OH

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