Thanks to the report by Mike Hendrickson of the immature male King Eider near Duluth today, dozens of birders were able to see the bird, but I would like to point out that shortly after Mike found the bird at Nokomis restaurant (which is up the shore near Stoney Point), the bird flew and we followed it all the way down the shore where it eventually settled in at the edge of the ice near 7919 Condon Blvd (Scenic Hwy 61), not far from Lakewood. It was an incredible day on the shore for waterfowl- as most Duluth birders know, a typical winter day from Brighton Beach to Stoney Point often yields only a handful of Common Goldeneyes and Red-breasted Mergansers, but today there were large flocks of Long-tailed ducks in this same stretch (the largest group we saw at one time was 145), which is very unusual for this far west on the lake (where even one is noteworthy). There were also dozens of both Common and Red-breasted Mergansers. Although the King Eider flew off from Nokomis with a large flock of 110 Long-tailed Ducks, it eventually joined a group of three White-winged Scoters near 7919 Condon (where there were also 62 Long-tailed Ducks), which seemed to suit its large size much better, and it apparently spent the rest of the day near this location. Since the lake was frozen solid from downtown Duluth out to this location, I suggest any further searches for the eider should begin at the edge of the ice.
Karl Bardon Duluth, MN ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
