Cheney Lake

Today Bryant and I went to Cheney lake for several hours.  It was pretty calm which made the viewing for the ducks quite nice.  When we got to the dam, we started checking around the lake.  The whole lake was covered in ducks! Common Mergansers were the most common, but there was a nice variety of other diving ducks.  As we approached a group of several Ring-necked Ducks, Lesser Scaups, and Redheads, I saw one duck go flying away.  It had VERY distinct white wing patches and when it landed I saw that it had a white patch in front of its eye and another one right behind its eye.  It was a White-winged Scoter, a lifer for us!

White-winged Scoter: Photo by Bryant

Other birds of note included the following:  Field Sparrow, White throated Sparrow,  Lesser Black-backed Gull, and thousands of Common Mergansers. Undoubtedly though, the Scoter was the best bird of the day.

Andrew