Sunday, February 15, 2015

Male Eider

 Cape Spear is always a hit or miss location. Sometimes there are so many birds it is hard to focus on any single bird. Other times the basin is empty.
 Today was a "middling" kind of day. There were small flocks of Common Eider and Long-tailed Ducks scattered about. Flocks were too far to identify with binoculars, so I focused on the flybys as well as the few that were playing in the surf below the lookout.
 This flying eider, I think, is a first Spring male. He really looked quite different from other males about.
 Unfortunately, as the above photos show, he decided he had to go before I could get a really close shot of him. For a while I hoped he would drift into shore.
 This beautiful male Common Eider stayed in close to the lookout. Wish I could get a really close look at one of these.
 Gunning for a King Eider, I held the camera tight on small groups passing by.
 This strategy paid off as I was able to see two male Kings.
 Neither of these small flocks landed, they continued on around the bend and disappeared.
 I have included several shots as they moved closer to shore.


In this last shot of Long-tailed Ducks, there seemed to be one that was quite different. It must be a Labrador Duck!  Wink! Wink! I have looked at a lot of images of Long-tailed Ducks and scoters, and I don't think it is any of those birds. I apologize for the poor photo, but maybe someone can make sense of it.

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