Merlins, White-winged Scoters, and a Variety of Waterfowl

I am still trying to get over a cold that I've had for a week and a half. I missed three days of work last week after missing an opportunity to preach last Sunday because I had nearly lost my voice. My health did improve enough so that I was able to preach this Sunday at my church. My pastor had surgery and will be out for several weeks so I will have the opportunity to fill in for a few weeks. In spite of being sick, and spending a lot of time this weekend preparing to preach, I had a nice birding weekend as well, but before I share what I saw this weekend, I want to go back into February.

On the way to work on February 18, I saw some strangely marked Snow and Ross's Geese at the Gridley Wastewater Treatment Ponds. The Snow Geese had what seemed to be orange or buffy coloring on their heads, and it appeared that one of the Ross's Geese had a blue head.



The Ross's Geese can be seen in this photo, including the one with the blue head.



Here are a couple of flight shots of these birds.





On the afternoon of February 21, I found my first of the year Swamp Sparrows at Evergreen Lake. The next day there were Swamp, Song, American Tree Sparrows, and a single juvenile White-crowned Sparrow at the South end of Evergreen.

Now, I will move on to this weekend. Saturday, I had to run a few errands in the late afternoon. After running my errands, I drove by Colene Hoose Elementary School to see if the Merlin was around. I found not one but two Merlins. One was on a utility pole by Vernon Rd., and the other was on a tree next to the paved basketball court adjacent to Grandview Dr. Here are a couple of photos of the first.





and here is a poorly lit photo of the second . . .



After preaching Sunday morning, I came home and checked the Central Illinois Birding Group site to see if anything had been reported. Butch Tetzlaff had reported seeing four White-winged Scoters at Evergreen Lake. Shortly after reading this report, I received a text from Shanin Abreu that there were five White-winged Scoters at Evergreen Lake. I skipped lunch and headed straight to the Evergreen Lake boat launch. Here is a list of the waterfowl I saw there.

Canada Goose 75
Redhead 2
Lesser Scaup 10
White-winged Scoter 5
Bufflehead 2
Common Goldeneye 4
Hooded Merganser 6
Common Merganser 10

Here are a few of the Common Mergansers.



And here is one of the Buffleheads.



As my list shows, there were indeed five White-winged Scoters. There was one adult male, two females, and what appeared to be two immature males. Here is a photo of two of them with a couple of female Common Mergansers. The adult male is mostly black.



Here is the adult male and a younger male.



And here is a young male and a female.



In order to get closer to the waterfowl, I hiked the Primitive Camping Trail and sat down in the snow on the edge of the lake. Many of the waterfowl came in pretty close to the shore as I sat taking photos. Here is the adult male scoter with a male Redhead and several male Lesser Scaups.



Here is a shot of male and female Redheads and Lesser Scaups with a young male scoter.



The Common Goldeneyes flew in and landed pretty close to where I was sitting. Here is one of them.



And here are a few more photos of the scoters by themselves or with other birds.