Wildcat Birding: Lake County Lakefront 2/4

I woke up this morning with a little bit of anticipation over today's birding possibilities. The last two days have seen other birders finding loons, scoters, and long-tailed ducks, so I was hoping that I might be able to share in the viewing of some of the more uncommon waterbirds.
I started the morning off at Waukegan Beach where I checked both piers, the north beach, and the southernmost drive-on pier. There were birds but just the everyday variety of mergansers, Bufflehead, Greater Scaup, Common Goldeneye, geese, and mallards. From here I headed to NPM and was pulling in the parking lot just as my birding pal, Jim Solum texted me to say that he had 2 scoter sp., long-tailed ducks, and no loons. I talked briefly with Jim before heading down the road on foot to the southern point of the park. It was windy but not brutal, about 15-20mph. The water was pretty choppy, though, and finding ducks would be a challenge. Fortunately, the first bird I saw was sitting comfortably in the south slip of the harbor in calm, glassy water. I got some nice shots of a female SURF SCOTER (LCY bird #83).

On the lake were the regulars but I quickly saw some very dark birds with white wing patches fly right in front of me. 13 WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS made not one pass, but two, so I could get some nice looks at about 100yds.

Didn't see anything else, though, so I headed back to the car to go to IBSP North. Just as I got back to the car, Jim called me to say that he had a red-throated loon at the North unit. I hustled over there to meet Jim, but the loon was AWOL. As I said before, the water was very choppy and tracking water birds was tough. That, combined with the fact that loons will travel large distances underwater when they dive, makes it difficult to follow these birds. It didn't really surprise me that the bird was no longer visible. I started working my way north along the beach scanning as I went along. Finally after looking for about 15min. I found the RED-THROATED LOON (LCY bird #84) about 100yds from the spot where Jim had him. He dove almost immediately and it took me another 5 min. to find him again. He still didn't stay up long and this time vanished for good. I never saw him again. A beautiful bird!

I continued south to Hosah Park where I had really bad looks at 2 SURF SCOTERS in the choppy surf and morning glare off the water. I could tell they were surfs by the blocky, square head with the triangular doorstop bill. I also had 4 LONG-TAILED DUCKS fly by in the distance. Long-tailed Ducks look quite singular when they fly. Unlike most ducks, they twist and turn in flight and you can see their white sides and belly contrasting with their all dark wings which seem very long for their size and flap almost butterfly-like. They also rear back and throw their feet up when coming in for a landing.

I finished the morning at Lyons Woods, finch capital of Lake County. I'd been teased once by 2 finches back in early January that I'm pretty sure were white-wings but I could never see them since they were buried in the branches of a pine. I could hear their periodic calls, though. Can't count an unseen finch, though, so I continued to search and come up empty. Today as I walked in the place was silent. Not even a chickadee was making a sound, so I made a couple of screech owl calls and played the chatter of the white-winged crossbill. Nothing. I continued walking. In about 5 more minutes I heard them. Paydirt! A group of 8 flew into a tree right in front of me and I was able to get a great look at an adult female.