News Black Scoter| Black Scoter |
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| Saturday, 24 November 2007 21:24 | ||||
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While at Independence Grove this morning, Jeff and I flushed this female Black Scoter from the shoreline while looking for a mysterious grebe (which turned out to be a Pied-billed Grebe with some sort of issue that caused it to continually turn in circles while seemingly attacking something on its right flank). "Surprised" does not quite capture the emotion at seeing a Black Scoter so far away from Lake Michigan. I suspect this bird may have an injured or broken left leg as it held it in the position you see below while we watched it.  Click on the image for a larger version. The bird flew/ran away from the shoreline and headed several yards offshore where it slowed and started swimming away. After we backed away it returned to the shoreline a little way from where it started. This bird, an injured pelican and an oddly-behaving Pied-billed Grebe...I think Independence Grove is becoming a haven for injured birds this fall! Jeff and I spent some time making sure this bird was not a Ruddy Duck and even after I got home and looked at the pictures I still sent one to an experienced friend to make sure I hadn't missed something. I hadn't noticed before how similar the female Black Scoter is to a winter Ruddy Duck and I'm not sure it would be easy to tell with anything less than a good look. Anyone got any quick tell-tale diagnostics they would care to share? Other birds we saw while at the grove were a Bald Eagle, a Lesser Black-backed Gull and a Yellow-rumped Warbler! Definitely an odd day!
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A Random Image
