ML479923251

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

A winter plumaged bird first seen from the Meig's Point viewing platform at approximately 3:30pm showing characteristics of the Arcticus subspecies. John and my daughter pointed out a bird to me, slightly east of the platform and to the left of a Common Loon. When I first saw it in my 10x42 bins, the whiteness of it struck me and I knew it was special. It dove, then came back up and I got my first good look at it. It was a very whitish bird, smaller than the nearby Ring-billed gull in length and at least half the size more or less to the Common Loon. It dove again and resurfaced. I located it in the scope and this time I saw the black tail, and studied the back plumage which had only a speckling of black. I thought at this time that it was a Black Guillemot. Then we moved to a high point overlooking the pebble beach as the bird was moving in this easterly direction somewhat. Here I noticed some black edging to the back of the oval white wing patch. The white wing patch was noticeably brighter than the whitish areas of the neck, though it blended in much of the time, it was obviously much brighter when the angle was from the side profile. A quick check of Sibley's guide ruled out the other alcids in this size range, such as murres and razorbills, which all have more black on the back. I went to take a cell phone picture but accidentally hit video and couldn't zoom in. I obtained a very crude brief video. After another dive, I made it a point to study the bill which was short, thin, and black. It had a black eye, but the head, neck, breast, and flanks / underparts were all white. It was diving continually and ranged widely as it did forcing us to spend time relocating it after each dive. At this time, the bird moved slightly west again so I tried to go closer to the water's edge to photograph it, but only saw it once from that vantage point and did not see it thereafter. This, however was a close-up view of it so I was satisfied about the identification as Black Guillemot. Detailed report to be submitted to ARCC. Poor photo trimmed from video clip.

Technical information

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541 pixels x 304 pixels

Original file size

20.56 KB