Colonel Samuel Smith Park: BWT, RN grebes and loons.

[angelicque]

first time i have ever seen a blue winged teal! spotted near the yacht club.

also sighted, a HUGE flock of red necked grebes along the lakeshore, as well as some loons.

[skip]

The King Eider was still at Colonel Sam this morning, feeding among the plentiful RN Grebes and RB Mergies in the eastern-most bay. Didn't see the BW Teal (nor the Western Grebe), but there were lots of other good birds: Common Loon, Caspian Tern, American Widgeon, etc. etc. Beautiful morning to be out there.

[angelicque]

add a white winged scoter (female) to the list for this location as well

[skip]

Yep. Even took her picture!

[Margaret]

Surprised to see so many red necked grebes. One birder said there were 400 there the other day! Some birders with humongous cameras had not located the K. eider this morning but had spotted the W. grebe. I was not so lucky but I'm pretty sure I spotted an eared grebe among the horned variety at the western end. Can anyone confirm? I think I'm going to have to treat myself to a spotting scope as my bins are not much use for differential diagnosis! Oops- just realised that's a health care term. I'm sure you know I'm referring to accurate identification.
There was an immature red-tail hawk on the lamp-post at the north parking lot.

[angelicque]

i also heard what sounded like wood duck calls coming from some of the evergreens (at the parking lot near the soccer field) but didn't see anything.
are there birds that make similar noises to wood ducks? i have never seen them at this location before!

[Brian Bailey]

There are a pair of Coopers Hawks nesting near there.  Perhaps it was their alarm call you heard.

If you know where last year's nest was, this year it is almost directly across the path, in the southernmost conifer.

I doubt it was a Wood Duck there, but there were a lot of different bird songs in the woods this weekend!

BB