It's a big duck

[Shortsighted]

 I’ve pretty much given up ever being able to encounter a co-operative mature male Surf scoter on the lakefront, but the more common White-winged scoter is still fair game for photography during most every winter.  As long as zebra mussels remain readily available there will be scoters on the scene.  They really are the brutes of the duck family, metaphorically an amphibious tank, or at least the naval equivalent.  I know what you might be thinking ... why must there be a metaphor at all?  That is a big question and one that I have pondered lately.  The female scoter and the juvenile carrying a drab brown livery, while the male is jet black with bright white accents.  Both have been spotted in small numbers at Tommy Thompson, Unwin Bridge and Ashbridges Bay.