Larry Gara and I went out to Cowan Lake State Park this afternoon to check
out the waterfowl that have been reported over the last few days by him and
others.  We didn't find the Snow Geese or the white-fronts or the Red-necked
Grebe reported today by Rick Asamoto, but we did find an adult female Surf
Scoter.

The bird was observed at fairly close range.  We could see the
chocolatey-brown overall color with mottled patches on the head, which bore
the profile we associate with Surf Scoter.  The bird flew and we could see
that the secondaries were all dark.

We spotted this bird at the South Shore Marina.  From the beach we could see
a nice collection of about 100 ducks, about half of which were Redheads, a
quarter were ring-necks and the remainder Mallards, wigeon, pintail, and
Bufflehead.

These are unusual conditions at Cowan.  In prevous years at this time the
lake has been frozen over, or drawn way down, or both.

Cheers,

Bob


--
Robert D Powell
Wilmington, OH, USA
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http://rdp1710.wordpress.com

Nulla dies sine linea

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