Okay, I'm 99.9% sure. I arrived at the pullout near the junction of Whiskey Cr.
Rd and Netarts Bay Rd just as the sun was setting. I didn't get a picture
(sigh). I keep trying to talk myself out of it, but I'm sure it was an adult
female Steller's Eider. Everything was there. I noted most of the keys before I
looked it up - the color, the head and bill shape (especially the square head),
the eye ring, the gray bill, the long-ish tail. There was a female Bufflehead
nearby, and the comparative size was dead on. There was one thing that bothered
me just a bit (always something), the white patch on the rear flank appeared
more horizontal, like that on a White-winged Scoter. But this bird is definitely
not a Scoter, way too small and the forehead dropped vertically to the bill.
I've seen at least one species of Scoter nearly everyday during the summer
months, all three species breed on the lakes where I work in Alaska (for many
years). I've never seen an Eider, though. I hope I'm not a knucklehead on this
one.
This was not a shy bird, it's too bad I had such poor light. When I first pulled
up into the parking area (before I even parked) I noticed it to be something
different. It was only thirty feet off shore. I grabbed the glasses and jumped
out of the truck. When I tried to spy it, it dove, so I ran down to the edge of
the shore (leaving my truck running and the door open) to be closer to it when
it popped up. It worked, she popped up five feet in front of me (!) with a crab
about the size of a half-dollar. She chomped it, shook it, and tossed it around.
Once the crab was properly tamed, she swallowed it. All the while casually
swimming back out to about thirty feet from shore. To my utter amazement, she
repeated this no less than six more times, each time popping up within ten feet
of me, and only a couple of feet from shore. And, all but once came up with a
crab of identical size.
Anyone have any ideas of what else it could have been
I'll be back out there at first light tomorrow to try and get a photo. She was
there at last light, so maybe?
Regardless of what the bird was, I had a great time watching it dismantle those
crabs.
Cheers,
Scott O'Donnell
