Hi Tweets,

Psst, hey buddy, c'mere--ya wanna see a male Alaska-race Common Eider in
*full* Alternate plumage widdout havin to spring for a plane ticket to Nome?

The bird was close in to the Stanley Park Sea Wall on the incoming tide late
this aft in a flock of a gazillion Surf Scoters and Barrow's Goldeneyes this
afternoon, about 500 meters E of Prospect Point. If driving to see this
great-looking bird, don't forget there's *no* free parking in Stanley Park.
If bussing or walking, quickest way to reach this area without having to
hoof at least half the Sea Wall--as the flock was at approx mid-point--cut
through the park by walking through the Aquarium/ex-Zoo area to the Sea Wall
on the opposite side, then turn L and walk maybe 400 meters. Once you find
the big flock, look mostly along the outer edge; that's where it preferred
to stay during the one-hour observation.

It's conspicuous, a big black and white tanker of a duck, low in the water,
mostly white at any distance with the black sides less apparent. A closer
look shows the completely molted-in pale green auriculars and nape *just
like the book* and an oval brownish-pink frontal shield and crisp contrasts
between the black and white areas. There's just a titch of fine dusky
mottling on the wings. So it's not in 100% full Alternate, just 98%--that's
2% for advertising, so sue me.

Description: Common Eider, Somateria mollissima, race v-nigra; male in final
stage of pre-Alternate 2 molt.

Cap solid midnight black, included eye, divided by a thin white median
stripe; cheeks and lores bone white; auriculars and nape pale lime green
divided by continuation of white median crown stripe onto nape; chin,
throat, neck, wing coverts and scapulars, and back white with a remnant
trace of fine dusky mottling on wings; distinct oval frontal shield/breast
white suffused strong brownish-pink; flight feathers, sides and tail solid
midnight black interrupted by small white flank patch; tertials white
(perhaps edged thinly black); bill and frontal shield golden-yellow, nail
slightly paler. There was no trace of the black 'V' on chin and throat said
to be typical of the 'v-nigra' race, but this feature may await a further
Alternate plumage to develop.

A large duck, lower in the water than all other ducks present in flock, and
slightly longer and much wider at the waterline than the scoters. Also
present in flock were thousands of Surf Scoters in all plumages to
definitive adults, hundreds of Barrow's Goldeneyes, a few each of Common
Goldeneyes, Buffleheads, Greater and Lesser Scaup, Harlequin and Long-tailed
Ducks, an adult female White-winged Scoter, an adult male Black Scoter, and
a few Red-breasted Mergansers.

The flock itself, comprised besides the eider of almost three thousand Surf
Scoters and a handful of the other species, was feeding in shallow water
adjacent to the Stanley Park Sea Wall. When not feeding, all the ducks faced
into the strong current of the flooding tide, remaining more or less in
place. As mentioned earlier, the eider stayed to the far edge of the flock
which itself was strung out along about 150-200 meters along the Sea Wall
and divided roughly into two parts separated by a gap of about 35-50 meters
where there were few birds, the eider moving fairly freely between the two
flocks as well as spending some time in the hiatus where there were few
other birds. When, as they often do, the scoters bunched up densely, the
eider moved decisively to the outside of the flock, but in the
sparsely-populated gap between the two flocks, would move in until only
15-20 meters from the Sea Wall. It often participated in the
semi-synchronised en masse dives of the scoters (look at almost a thousand
scoters, turn away for three seconds, turn back to see empty water. How the
term 'what the--!' came into being).

Not only was it an opportunity to see a bird we're not likely to see this
far south again any time soon, but to see it in definitive plumage was
breathtaking. Framed by the thousands of *stunning* Surf Scoters and crisply
marked goldeneyes and a definitive adult male Long-tailed in *pristine*
Basic plumage just a few feet away from where I was standing, everyone so
close on calm water with the mountains behind, in the subtle and serene
light of late afternoon, it was simply beautiful. A (bird) photographer's dream.

Yeah, yeah, cut the gush and get back to the plumage details, says the
hardcore birder within (one of these days I'm gonna *digest* that Inner
Child!). Well, it was a clinic on waterfowl plumages, then. Here's something
I learned today: *just* before a subadult male Greater Scaup molts in the
vermiculated greyback and scaps, his back is very dark brown, almost
blackish brown, exactly the same shade and pattern as on a juv or female
Tufted Duck's back. If you don't see the head-shape clearly on one of these
birds, or the grey just underlying the brown, you might easily wonder if
you're not looking at a tuftless juv.: that's not an easy ID call in the
least. Luckily there were a bunch of them there in varying degrees of
all-dark to the grey well on the way to molting in, and luckier still, this
phase doesn't last long. But it was great to be able to look at all the ages
'n stages of scoters, scaup and goldeneyes, and to see the richly-complex
patterns on the male Red-breasted Mergansers emerging from the Basic plumage.

I'll add the full Sea Wall species account in a subsequent post.

Cheers

Michael Price We aren't flying...we're falling with style!
Vancouver BC Canada -Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story
mprice at mindlink.net