Yesterday was definitely for the ducks. I trekked up to Whidbey I. to
check out the King Eider, and managed to wind up with 23 species of
'quackers' by days end. I somehow managed to not find a Wood Duck, but
otherwise saw all the normally occurring winter ducks in WA.

As reported on the Birdbox, the eider is 'parked' at the end of Hastie
Lake Rd. on Whidbey I. All you have to do is set up your scope and scan
for a few minutes. Also out there are several Harlequin Ducks, a handful
of Oldsquaw, and Barrow's Goldeneye. Back in Seattle, a Common Loon was
off Seward Park in Lake Washington (with Red-breasted Mergansers), and 2
drake Eurasian Wigeons were at Sayres Park.

The mergansers refused to be predictable yesterday. Normally down near
Seward Park, Hooded Mergs are found along the shoreline, and Common Mergs
are out in deeper water. I usually have to go to Alki to see
Red-breasted Mergs. But yesterday, only the Red-breasted was down on
that part of Lake Washington, and I didn't see any Hooded Mergs until I
got to a *saltwater* cove on Whidbey Island.

And I somehow missed the 'Bird' by just a few minutes - by that I mean
fellow tweeter Fred Bird, who was at the eider location just minutes
before me, according to his post.

Cheers...

-------------
Michael R. Smith
Univ. of Washington, Seattle
whimbrel at u.washington.edu
http://salmo.cqs.washington.edu/~wagap/mike.html