I had Friday off so after dropping Samantha off at school, I took off for Treadway’s in Prairie County. I’m used to going there in the summer for shore birds but inly recently learned that its good in winter for waterfowl. My target today was a Surf Scoter reported by Kenny Nichols. This was actually my second attempt, I had gone the Saturday before but had failed to see him.
It was cold and sunny, about 27 F. That wasn’t so bad as I was dressed for it but the difference between the super cold air and not as cold water made for a shimmering inversion layer that reduced the clarity of my images.
I did see the Surf Scoter and got pictures though he never let me get too close plus the following list of birds. An asterisk indicates first of year.
- Surf Scoter *
- Ross’s Goose *
- Snow Goose
- Mallard
- Northern Shoveler
- Canvasback
- Lesser Scaup
- Bufflehead
- Common Goldeneye
- Ruddy Duck
- Horned Grebe
- Great Blue Heron
- Turkey Vulture
- Northern Harrier
- Red-tailed Hawk
- American Kestrel
- American Coot
- Killdeer
- Greater Yellowlegs
- Ring-billed Gull
- Mourning Dove
- Belted Kingfisher
- American Crow
- American Pipit
- Northern Cardinal
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Eastern Meadowlark
