Merry Christmas all! I got a great Christmas gift yesterday afternoon - a lifer *Harlequin duck!*
I got off work early and headed over to Point Douglas to try my luck. When I arrived at about 2:30 present were: Trumpeter Swan ~ 6 *Lesser Scaup* - 1 Canvasback - 1 pair Redhead ~ 2 pair Coot ~ 3 Common Merganser ~ about a dozen pairs Common Goldeneye ~ over a dozen pairs Canada Geese ~ 8 Mallard ~ couple pair After I had been hanging around for a while, Jim Mattson and his son Brady arrived. At Jim's suggestion, we proceeded to the Prescott boat launch, where we immediately found the *Harlequin*, upriver out from the boat slips on the Wisconsin side. It was about 3:30 We moved up to overlook just south of the bridge near the Little Marina area nearer to the duck (sorry if I am not identifying these areas precisely, it was my first time there, I was following Jim M, and my focus was on the *Harlequin!*) where we all got a much closer look at the lone male as it moved towards the middle of the river, catching fish as it went amongst Common Goldeneye and a Mallard. Even though it was slightly backlit from the Wisconsin side, the distinctive white head and body markings were crisp and clear against the dusky blue, although I did not get a good sense of the chestnut patch on the flank. We moved downriver on foot to another vantage point nearer the docks and the duck lifted off and landed in Minnesota waters! (*Dakota County)*. It proceeded to swim upriver to* Washington county* waters as well. As we celebrated, a non-birder arrived hoping he could get a look through our scopes at an old ship that had apparently recently sunk just north of the bridge. He assumed that was our target of interest and when we told him we were looking at a duck, he looked bewildered and briefly told us the story of the boat and disappeared. I guess birders are a breed apart. After looking downriver a bit and noticing 3 *bald eagles* (2 adults, one 1st year) we returned to Point Douglas park. By 4pm, many more birds were settling into the modest, crescent shaped piece of open water on Point Douglas. There were now easily many hundreds of birds concentrated in this small spot! Dozens more Goldeneyes continued to stream in, announcing their arrival with their characteristic whistling wings. More Mergansers were also showing up and upon re-scanning the throngs of birds we found a pair of *Black ducks*. Jim M and Brady saw the *Hybrid Merganser/Goldeneye*, but I was unable to pick it out of the ever increasing numbers of birds before I had to leave. All in all, it was great Christmas present. I hope yours are equally swell! -- Sincerely, Jim Ryan on St. Paul's Westside 651-308-0234 business cell "A man who dares to waste an hour of time has not discovered the value of life." - Charles Darwin -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://moumn.org/pipermail/mou-net_moumn.org/attachments/20071225/8239f7ee/attachment.html
