Saturday afternoon late I went to Gazzam Lake (Bainbridge Island) on the Gazzam Lake trail and sat at the bench on the west side lake access. At first all I saw was lots of Widgeon and a few Coot. Then I saw 2 female Mergansers in the weeds; I thought Commons at first. But out of the weeds came a beautiful male Hooded Merganser who swam around with them and gave me a great long look through the scope.
Dale and Regina Spoor came along and watched them with me for a while. We all got up to leave and a bit up the trail I realized I'd left my phone behind (with iBird on it). I went back and noticed there were now 2 males and a few more females. I set my scope back up and watched until almost dark as one by one more Mergansers came out of the weeds and a small group flew in. At the end there were 7 males and 15 or so females (and maybe 1st-years?). The males did a great display. They lifted their heads up and did a bobbing or nodding motion with their heads, showing off their crests with the big white patch to great advantage. There was some fast-swimming and a bit of chasing as well. This went on for at least 15-30 minutes. The whole thing seemed to happen as the light was fading (the sun was down by then) which seemed to make the flock feel safer. It was the best I'd ever seen Hooded Mergansers, which are in my opinion one of the prettiest birds we get here. Hopefully they'll stick around the lake for further enjoyment.
Stephen Hubbard

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sherry Hagen" <littlebirder at pacifier.com>
To: "Ryan Shaw" <rtshaw80 at hotmail.com>, "tweeters birding" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Sunday, October 30, 2011 12:14:27 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Black-tailed Gull - If you still want to go for it, It is still there





Where exactly is Gilmur Public Access on Commencement Bay



Sherry Hagen
littlebirder at comcast.net
Vancouver, WA




From: Ryan Shaw
Sent: Saturday, October 29, 2011 7:47 PM
To: tweeters birding
Subject: [Tweeters] Black-tailed Gull - If you still want to go for it, It is still there


If anyone is still interested, the Black-tailed Gull along the Commencement Bay log booms along Marine View Drive is still being seen - It was observed today around 3:00PM by Charlie Wright, Bill Tweit, Steve Mlodinow, Ryan Merrill, Brad Waggoner, and me.
Cheers,
Ryan ShawTacomartshaw80 at hotmail.com _______________________________________________
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