After I got picked up from college today, I birded the CBBT to find the King
eider and other birds that could be around. I saw the immature male King eider
off of Island#1 and 4 common eiders off Island #2. I might have also seen a
Pacific Loon and a 1st winter Mew gull. There might have been a Pacific Loon
off of the west side of Island #2 to the right of a concrete barrier. He was
moving around in that area. The loon looked like it might have been a Pacific
since it had a dark back with no scaling on it and it had a ring necklace that
was on the top part of the neck that moved around to the white front and then
stopped in the middle on both sides. I could not tell if the bill was thin and
short enough, but I know I saw these last two features. I watched the bird off
and on for about 15 minutes and then I didn't see it again. I think the bird
moved off to the left There were some common loons out in the water also, but
this bird didn't look like a common loon. The possible 1st winter mew gull was
on the west side of island #4 in a huge gull flock where the two walls converge
near the highway. I only saw the bird for two minutes, but I saw that the bird
looked a lot different than a first winter Ring-billed gull. It had the black
tip to the bill and the base of the bill was pink, but the bird had a brown
body with gray wings. These are all the features I saw. I ran to my car to
look at a picture of the mew gull in the Sibley guide, and then it was gone. I
didn't find the harlequin duck. Other birds I found were all 3 species of
scoter, lots of purple sandpiper, great cormorant, oldsquaws, oystercatchers,
red-breasted mergansers and others.
Daniel
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