This is to confirm Rick Asamoto's sighting of seven Surf Scoters this morning. Rick called Larry Gara about 0930 to report that he was looking at Surf Scoters off the beach at Caesar Creek State Park. Larry called me and the chase was on. We arrived at the beach at about 1030, luckily between waves of Sunday morning dog walkers. The scoters were there, perhaps 25 meters offshore. There were seven birds, of which one was a fully fledged adult male in alternate plumage with the exception of the forehead patch. The particolored beak was clearly evident. The other birds appeared to be females or juveniles molting out of first winter plumage. The female/immature birds displayed considerable variation from bird to bird. All of them showed two patches, one behind the eye and one between the eye and the bill. On several of the birds, the marked near the eye looked suspiciously as if it might be turning into the "comma" mark of the White-winged Scoter. We made a concerted effort to find evidence of a white wing patch, to no avail. The birds were avidly foraging, but we never saw the wing extended. As for us, I was persuaded by the comparison with the obvious adult male Surf Scoter. All of the birds were in a tightly packed flock, making comparison easy. All of the birds were very similar in conformation. In particular, the bills were all similar. The only notable exception was that the bills of the female/immature birds was dark gray, as opposed to the gaudy colors of the adult male. The bill of the White-winged Scoter is structurally quite different with its "ski jump" profile. We're going with seven Surf Scoters. Cheers, Bob -- Robert D Powell Congress Farm Research Institute Wilmington, OH, USA [log in to unmask] http://rdp1710.wordpress.com Nulla dies sine aves ______________________________________________________________________ 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]