WPBO Waterbird Count Fall 2010

Our second busiest day for loons with a total of 239, almost all between 7 - 9 a.m. And almost all taking the short cut over the harbour and across the peninsula to the main part of Lake Superior, most slightly lower in altitude than on less windy days, as today there was a 20 km/h north wind, and with temps between 2 - 6 degrees C it was another chilly day as a couple of visitors found out! Consequently many of the birds disappeared quickly out of sight behind the taller trees as they cut across. One nice aspect of them using this route is that the sun is behind me and i can see birds going across a couple of miles away at least, and there's very little shimmer first thing. No definite Red Throats today, but a bloke from Ontario went away happy on Sunday having watched one fly low right over our heads! Closely followed by our first Surf Scoter of the count, a nice male which flew by giving great views. It's a species which always gets this Brit excited - funnily enough a couple of mates found no less than three this winter near where i live in North Wales, where even one is a mega rarity! Same day an immature Glaucous Gull flew by towards the end of the count in the shimmer, not great views but a bird that gets me even more aroused than a Surfie as i'm a bit of a larophile! Talking of larids, 2 adult G B B Gulls were count firsts yesterday as was a smart male American Wigeon, much more colourful than its Eurasian countepart. This one was clearly lonely and swam around after the local R B Mergs for most of the day like a little puppy! Ahhh.... Scaup went through in higher numbers than recently too.