I’m usually not a big fan of wind (no pun intended) but since today’s winds were westerly with a slight southerly component, I figured that some birds could be moving, so I headed to the best wind block and my favorite lakewatch spot in northern Lake County, North Point Marina Yacht Club. Andy Stewart and Steve Mulhall had already been ticking off species for about 30 minutes before I got there due to my forgetting about DS time, so I had some catching up to do. Usually west winds aren’t the greatest for a lakewatch in Lake County, or anywhere on the west side of the big lake, but we had a unique geologic/weather/structural phenomena to help us out this morning. Since the birds prefer open water in case they want to rest and get some food, they don’t fly as much over the pack ice. The pack ice had been blown out into the lack by the strong westerly winds, so that created a little channel that many of the ducks were flying through and were thus much closer than they usually would be with this direction of wind. See aerial view diagram below. The birds were flying between the ice at the top and the breakwall for those not familiar with the yacht club.
I was there with Steve and Andy, and later Gustavo Ustariz, for 2 hours. For at least 90 minutes the LONG-TAILED DUCKS were streaming by as either individuals or groups of 2-15 every few minutes, and many of them landed in the water. I put down 56 on ebird but this was a very conservative count of birds that I didn't see land since I didn't want to double count. There were probably over 100. This is the only time I can remember ever doing a lakewatch and having ANY bird outnumber RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS as flybys. It didn't happen today either, but it was pretty close. I definitely have never seen this many LTDU (LONG-TAILED DUCKS) in my life. It was especially cool because most of them were close by and, even though the looks were fleeting, we had nice views of the white heads and long tails of many males...something else you don't often see.
Male LTDU (internet photo)
So the LTDU flight was pretty epic, but even more so to me anyway, was the RED-THROATED LOON that flew right into my scope view as I was scanning the lake. I have been looking for that bird all winter, but like many birds this winter (most notably Northern Shrike and Short-eared Owl), they just haven't been around here in Lake County, so that was another highlight of the morning.
Red-throated Loon (internet photo)
The last highlight were the puddle ducks. We had a NORTHERN SHOVELER, 5 AMERICAN WIGEON, AMERICAN BLACK DUCK, and I had 12 NORTHERN PINTAIL, though the others had more I believe. Also a flyby GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL and a calling KILLDEER ( no shorebird shutout!) made our lakewatch pretty successful. All in all a pretty great morning. Bring on Spring!
ebird list
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