I was at Sims Park today from 9:30am to 10:45am.  I saw two different groups of scoters as I was standing just west of the pier and the driveway near the concrete bench.  One group to the northeast looked like mostly 12 Surf Scoters.  A much larger group at the west end of the park with 25 birds looked like a mix of Black and Surf Scoters and a few Scaup.  I walked to the west end and that group had about 15 Black Scoters with at least 7 or 8 Surf but then most of the Surf left that group.  I missed the Scaup that left shortly as I was talking to a PD photographer in the beginning. After awhile I would see the scoters flying and apparently rearranging themselves.  So I ended up going out on the beautiful new pier and saw that group that was more NNE now had about 20 scoters with a mix of mostly Surf and some Black Scoters.  I could not tell that there were any White-winged Scoters in the mix. So I would say roughly estimating the
 numbers I saw there were:
 
Black Scoters ~ 15
Surf Scoters ~ 19-20
Red-breasted Mergansers ~ 350 - with a few groups flying east
Scaup 3-4
Black Eagle 1 immature 
 
I did not have time to look around looking for land migrants because of the Scoters being more important.  There was one male Surf Scoter with the orangish bill and white on the back of the head.
 
Nancy Anderson
Richmond Hts, OH
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nancy_a/

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