The Challenge of the Lakewatch

  Last night while doing my night-before-birding prep of checking the weather forecast and reading the latest IBF/IBET updates, the prevailing thought was that today would bring NE winds and provide a nice opportunity for seeing some birds moving over the lake (a.k.a. a lakewatch). The NE winds theoretically blow the birds closer to shore. The challenge with the lake watch, for me, anyway, is twofold: 1.) the wind is blowing right in your face, is cold, and makes your scope and binoculars shake like a leaf; and 2.) the birds are distant, the sun is in the background, and ID is difficult. I've been looking at bird silhouettes quite a bit this fall, and I feel like I have a better, albeit still rudimentary, grasp of some of the shapes of the waterbirds. So today I was ready to find some good birds. I started the morning off at Ethel's Woods looking for a Greater White-fronted Goose but came up empty for about the 56th time in the past month. I've scanned more goose flocks than most hunters. I then headed to North Point Marina to check for Purple Sandpiper, which also was AWOL. I did, however, get some nice looks at my FOS (first of season) SNOW BUNTINGS.

    I then headed over to IBSP South to the concession stand on the north end of the park which blocks the wind pretty well. From about 8:45-10:30am I scanned the lake from this point. There were a large number of birds moving over the lake, but as is usually the case with a lake watch, most of the birds are backlit and too far away to ID. I did get too see a fair number well enough to ID, though, including #257 BLACK SCOTER! Black Scoters are all dark birds with paler underwings. The female has a distinctive pale cheek, while the male has an orange knob on his bill. I've only seen 1 male ever. He was a cool bird, though. Mostly it's the females that show up in Illinois for some reason. Today was no different, though I may have had a first year male with a dull bill. I had 1 bird that was darker than the other two which were grayish-brown. They did fly close enough for me to see the pale cheeks on 2 of the birds and ID them as female-type Black Scoters.

                                        INTERNET PHOTO
Other Highlights:

Black Scoter-3

Surf Scoter- 10 (ID'd by their thick bodies and block-shaped heads in silhouette at 30x. They were at about 300-400 yds)

White-winged Scoter-21 (easy ID. All black birds at about 200yds. flying with the water behind them. Easy to see the white secondaries)

Red-throated Loon- 2 (ID'd by the thinner, seemingly longer neck and smaller body but still the hunchbacked shape and slower wingbeats of a loon. Too silhouetted to see the coloration)

Common Loon- 9
Loon sp. 34
Red-breasted Merganser- 150+
Horned Grebe-1
Common Goldeneye-5

A great day to see some uncommon lake birds!