Thought I'd pass along this message from the MN list. It's from Bob Russell of Regional USFWS. Those who attended the Shorebird Symposium at Ottawa a few years back will recall he enlightened us as the keynote speaker. Bill Whan Columbus Subject: Probable world record Bufflehead count, Pool 9 From: Robert P Russell <wildchough AT AOL.COM> Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:18:16 -0500 Last week Eric Nelson of the USFWS and Mark Andersen of the Wisconsin DNR counted an amazing 8,620 Bufflehead on Pool 9 of the Mississippi River south of La Crosse, very likely a world record for this species. The only high count that comes close that I've been able to find is a 4,000+ count from Kelley's Island, Lake Erie, Ohio a couple of falls ago. The slow migration this season has allowed some large concentrations of waterfowl to occur at favored staging areas along their routes and is likely the cause of increased concentrations of scoters on Minnesota lakes. Normally, scoter flights occur in the Midwest on days with strong northwest winds and the birds move through the Midwest relatively quickly in late October or early November on their way to the Atlantic and to a lesser extent the Gulf coast. Counts at the major seaduck observatory, Avalon, New Jersey were way below normal in late October for scoters indicating a lack of strong weather fronts and much open water up north. Bob Russell, USFWS ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]